Vampyre
by Hoowee
Summary: [Old Fic[Badly Written[Mary-Sue Alert.]Yet another shard of the SnT surfaces, but what of the Westerner who has it in her posession and what are her intentions? [The only reason this is still here is because I find it too hard to hit the 'delete' key.]
1. Blood & Shards

VAMPYRE   
Chapter One: Blood & Shards.

....~*~....

Author: Hoowee  
E-mail: hoowee_darkelf@yahoo.com  
Warnings: Gothic horror, blood and strong language.  
Archive: http://animefruitloops.tripod.com 

....~*~....

Blood. Thick, dark, fresh blood ran down the vampire's throat, filling its mouth to overflowing. Gulping noises filled the darkened alley as the powerful muscles of her throat strained to swallow each and every last drop of the hot, metallic liquid that gushed from her victims' neck. Finally sated and sighing with pleasure, she released her grip on the young woman's body and with the tenderness of a lover laid the fresh corpse onto the filth strewn ground. Continuing with a gentleness that belied the savagery of her feast only moments before, she carefully arranged her victims clothing, smoothing out creases with her hands, brushing the alleys own filth from the white blouse and straightening what had fallen askew when she had fought the girl for her life's blood. Finally satisfied the vampire lent over the dead girl's face, blew some stray wisps of black hair from the body's forehead and then kissed each eye shut.

Suddenly the sound of a can being kicked rattled down the alley accompanied by a slightly off tune whistling. Tensing slightly, the vampire concentrated on this new disturbance. Hearing the thrumming of blood echo closer to her position then she liked, she gave the body one last caress then leapt straight up, the powerful muscles of her legs, easily giving her enough height to land softly on the roof of the building next to the alley. 

Being to bloated on the blood she had just stolen to fly even a short way towards her apartment in Tokyo, she scrambled across the shingles, slid down the other side of the house and tottered in a slightly tipsy way towards a bus stop.

Inside the house, Mr. Nakamura was happily watching his favourite samurai soap opera; beer can clenched in his hand, burping along to the theme song when he heard the scrabbling on his roof. "Bloody rats." He muttered in mid-belch. Grabbing the broom he thumped the handle against the ceiling in some vain hope to frighten the 'rats' away. Hearing nothing more he once again settled back into his comfy chair, waiting to become enthralled as his heroes once again vanquished the forces of evil. But yet again his concentration was to be thwarted.

"SHIT!" Came a shout from the alley, followed by a large clang as someone fell over the garbage cans that lined the alleys sides in a vain attempt to keep the filth contained. Slumping in his chair, Mr. Nakamura covered his face with his large hands and gave a much put upon sigh. "Drunks. Jus' what I need. This part o' town's goin' ta hell an' the bloody drunks are rejoicin' in my bloody alley." He eased himself out of his chair and shuffled over to the back door, which, incidentally, he opened with his right hand. His left hand flicked on the outside light switch so that he could peer through the shadows of the gathering dusk. Spying the drunk quivering in a pile of disposable nappies and the scraps of someone's last meal Mr. Nakamura shouted "Oi! You bloody get out of here before I call the bloody cops!" But the drunk just sat there and quivered a bit more. Grumbling about drunks being 'bloody useless' Mr. Nakamura walked slowly over to the drunk and hauled him to his feet. The drunk, being very drunk, squeaked in fright. "What is your bloody problem?" Mr. Nakamura growled under his breath. The drunk, by way of reacting to this, pointed one trembling finger towards further down the alley and then sat down again next to a smelly fish. Groaning with despair at the knowledge that he probably wasn't going to be able to watch his favourite soap tonight, Mr. Nakamura glanced in the direction that the drunk had pointed out to him. That's when he saw the girl. Her entire throat had been ripped out, but oddly enough, there was hardly any blood. Mr. Nakamura slowly sank down to sit next to the drunk and a pre-loved nappy. Whispering in shock he said just one word "...Shit..."

....~*~....

"Kagome-chan! Did you read today's newspaper?" 

"huh?" Kagome sat up rubbing her eyes sleepily from where she'd snoozed off in the afternoon sun, face first in her maths textbook. "Kagome, are you sure you've recovered from your arthritis?" Kuni asked, a look of absolute worry on her face. "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come to the park after school, maybe you should go home..." That brought Kagome awake. "Uh-uh. I'm totally recovered." She demonstrated this by jumping up and doing a few quick stretches before sitting down again. Internally she was thinking 'Arthritis? Couldn't Gramps have just said I had the flu? Good grief.' 

"Well if you're sure you're okay... " Kuni replied, adjusting her headband as she studied Kagome for any sign that her 'arthritis' had returned. "I was just asking if you'd read the newspaper today..." 

Nami, who until that minute had been busily consuming an ice-cream cone, got up off the grass and sat next to Kagome on the picnic table bench. "What's in the paper? An engagement announcement for Kagome and Hojo?" Nami giggled, giving a quick flick of her head to get her short hair out of her eyes. 

Kagome blushed and quite loudly denied that anything was even happening between her and Hojo. 'How could there when I'm always in the past helping Inu Yasha look for Shikon shards.' She thought furiously. 

Nami giggled even more, taking the blushing and the denial the wrong way. "So, you two are definitely a couple now?" She stared at Kagome waiting for her to confirm. 

Embarrassed by her friends intense stare, Kagome looked away from Nami just to find Kuni waiting with just as much interest in her answer on the other side. 

'Gah,' thought Kagome, "...Um...what is in the newspaper Kuni?" she asked, desperate to change the subject. Sighing with frustration in not being able to get Kagome to confess something about Hojo, Nami leaned back and started to eat her ice cream in earnest. 

Kuni took the moment to explain what had caught her interest in the newspaper. "There's been another mad dog attack. A girl from that posh school uptown was found with her throat torn out. Pretty gruesome." 

"How many is that now? Five dead?" Nami said, taking a decidedly morbid interest in the whole thing."

"I think so." Kuni replied, scanning the article for any more interesting facts to regal her friends with. "They're only ever found with their throats torn out...isn't that a bit strange? Wouldn't a mad dog maul them a bit more?" 

"Maybe it's a smart mad dog." Nami said. 

Kagome began to read the article as well, over her friends' shoulder, until she noticed a familiar tingling just at the back of her mind. 'A Shikon shard? Here?' 

"Excuse me please, but do you know which way I go to get to the elephant?" A voice said behind the engrossed three. Kagome, Kuni and Nami turned around to see a gaijin standing there looking at them. 

"The elephant?" Kagome said completely perplexed. Then she noticed one of the earrings the gaijin wore. Splintered into a diamond shape and pulsing slightly in her mind was a shard of the Shikon no Tama, the Jewel of Four Souls. 

Kuni and Nami, both totally unaware of what was bothering Kagome, were trying to figure out just what exactly the gaijin meant by wanting to find the 'elephant'. "Well, I think you ought to try the zoo." Nami said. 

"The zoo? Why on earth would the nearest elephant be located at the zoo?" The gaijin replied in surprise. 

While Kuni and Nami struggled to converse with the stranger Kagome secretly, she hoped, took the moment to study this person who should suddenly turn up with a Shikon shard. Sun-bleached straight blond hair hung halfway down her back in a loose plait and while she certainly wasn't short, if you didn't stand her against anyone she would look petite. She wore baggy blue button up jeans that rode low on her hips and a tight army green tang top. Her shoes were a pair of black leather sandals and on her right arm she wore a curling snake armlet that almost glowed golden next to her pale skin. Hiding her eyes were a pair of dark sunglasses. 

Kagome shivered. Something about this woman, or was she a girl, it was hard to tell, wasn't quite right. She seemed too pale and being in possession of a Shikon shard didn't help, Kagome's feeling of unnaturalness.

Apparently, Kagome wasn't good at studying people secretly because the gaijin noticed her perusal. "Am I getting something wrong? I've only been studying Japanese for a little while and I wouldn't put it past me to get something twisted around." The stranger joked nervously starting to fidget. The girls glanced at each other, which gave the gaijin her answer. "Oh I've said something really stupid haven't I? Oh how embarrassing." A faint blush began to touch the gaijin's cheeks. "I'll just go now.." she said as she started to turn to leave. 

"No don't" Kagome said grabbing her by the arm. She couldn't let a Shikon shard just walk out of her life that quickly, at least not without trying to understand what was going on, Inu Yasha would never forgive her. "Umm... I'm sure it's only a small mistake, we can figure it out." 

"You're sure..." The gaijin seemed so unsure, her body still half turned as if she expected to have to leave, or perhaps flee from tormenting laughter. 

She cringed. "I... ahhh..." 

"Totally sure." Kagome assured her. Thoughts flashing through her mind at light speed. 'I can't let her disappear when she has a Shikon shard. I have to find out about her... and get back the shard if I can.' 

"We're sure as well." Nami said with a vigorously nodding Kuni, breaking Kagome's train of thought. 

"Describe the place you want to go." Kuni explained, "We should be able to figure out what you mean. Right Kagome?" Kagome nodded, happy to be backed up by her friends. 

"Well... I need to find the public place where women go to... ahh... relieve themselves." The gaijin blushed, embarrassed about having to talk about such things. 

"You mean the public toilets?" Kuni inquired.

"Public toilets" the stranger said, trying out the word to see how it sounded as it rolled off her tongue. "I think that's what I meant. Yes, I'm pretty sure of it." she said, smiling and apparently satisfied with the word. 

"If you follow the path over there and then turn right after about fifty metres you should find a small bridge..." Kuni directed pointing out what she said. But the poor gaijin just sort of stared at her, cross eyed and apparently overwhelmed at trying to keep up with a native speaker of a language she'd only just really learnt.

"I'm sorry to inconvenience you but perhaps it would be easier if one of you showed me were they are." The stranger

"I can take you!" Kagome exclaimed giving the girl-woman a small push in the right direction. 'If I can get her away from my friends then I can ask her about the Shikon shard without having to involve them.' Kagome thought starting to walk with the gaijin towards the public toilets. 

"Kagome-chan, wait! We'll come with you." Nami cried while Kuni started packing up their belongings. Kagome felt a sweat drop roll down the side of her face. "You don't need to Nami, Kuni. I'll be back in a couple of minutes anyway and we don't want to lose our spot." Kagome smiled and waved her hand at them in a gesture to stay put, tugging the stranger away. 

"B-but Kagome-chan... " Kuni stuttered, clutching the newspaper to her chest. Kagome almost wished she could use 'sit' on her friends, almost. 

"Don't worry Kuni-chan, back soon." She said over her shoulder as she tugged the bemused gaijin away with her. 

"But what about the mad dog or Kagome's arthritis?" Kuni half whispered to Nami. 

"You worry to much Kuni-chan." Nami smiled sitting back on the picnic table bench and then frowned at the empty ice-cream wrapper. "Kagome's arthritis has cleared up and those mad dog attacks happened on the other side of town." Nami scrunched the wrapper up into a tight ball and concentrated as she aimed for the bin. "What's the dog going to do? Fly over half of Tokyo and pick Kagome out especially?"

....~*~....

The stranger flinched. "Are you okay?" Kagome asked. 

"Hnn? Oh, I'm fine. I just thought I heard something, that's all." The gaijin said, giggling slightly over her own silliness. "But I must thank you for helping me. My name is Nathania Jordan." The no-longer-nameless gaijin, Nathania, gave a small bow of thanks towards Kagome. Kagome blushed and waved her hand at Nathania. 

"Oh it was nothing, don't worry about it. Um... I'm Kagome Higurashi." 

"I'm very pleased to meet you Kagome Higurashi" Nathania smiled. The two continued to walk for a minute in uncomfortable silence, Nathania looking at the sights, anywhere but at Kagome. Kagome was dividing her attention between her feet and Nathania's ear. 

'I've got to find out how she got that Shikon shard, how it ended up in the present. But how? If I can just do this by myself Inu Yasha shouldn't get so cranky when I need to come home. It could prove to him that I'm not a "useless wench".' Kagome thought staring hard at Nathania's ear, a small frown creasing her features. Nathania, being a rather observant gaijin, (hell, she didn't have to be observant, the stare was hard to miss) noticed Kagome frowning at her, stopped, took a quick step back then leaned forward, waving her hand in front of Kagome's eyes. "Hmm?" Kagome went, snapping out of her thoughts. "Is everything alright." Nathania asked, her hands pulling her braid over her shoulder and tugging it slightly as they resumed walking. "You just seemed a bit out of it."

"No, no, everything's okay. I was just looking at your ear... " Kagome blushed, something that she seemed to be doing a lot of nowadays. 

"My ear?" Nathania stared quizzically at Kagome, head tilted to one side and her hands fiddling with her braid. 

"Umm... I meant earring. It's very... pretty. It almost looks... magical." Kagome almost felt like hitting herself on the head. 'Oh way to go Kagome. Very subtle.' she thought. 

"It is isn't it!? I always wear it. One of my ancestors got it off this Asian guy and it's been in my family ever since. I guess you could say it's become something of a family heirloom." Nathania prattled, obviously happy and nearly glowing with relief at being able to discuss something she was knowledgable about. "I've always felt down that there's only one though. I mean, don't earrings usually come in pairs?" Nathania's hands forsook her plait as she said this and began to twiddle with the shard. 

Kagome just sort of gaped from all the information she was getting. 'Wow. I'm pretty good at this detective stuff.' She thought while Nathania prattled on a bit more. 

"...and sometimes it gives off this really cool glow... ooh, are these the toilets?" Nathania stopped in front of a small grey building with a sign saying "Public Toilets" hanging off the side. 

"What?!" Kagome said, surprised at the way Nathania jumped topics in the middle of a sentence. "Oh... Um..." Kagome started thinking furiously, brain ticking overtime to think of some way of getting the shard. 'oh... um...' miraculously her thoughts mirrored her words... for a few moments at least. 'Okay, the shard is hers and has obviously been in her family for a long time but maybe I can persuade her to give it too me, tell her about Gramps being into all that mystic stuff. That way I haven't revealed how dangerous the shard could be and there's no violence so Inu Yasha won't have to worry about anything. Not that he seems to worry about anything but the jewel. But if it's a family heirloom... maybe seeing our shrine will help show I'm not some greedy money-grubber. (Hands up who thought about Nabiki in that line. Hoowee.)

"Um... Kagome-san. Are these the... ?"

"Actually... no they're not." Kagome said, her mind made up, grabbing Nathania's hand and dragging her away. 

"Oh, but doesn't the sign say... ?" Nathania started to say turning to point at the sign, walking backwards to keep from being pulled over by Kagome. "They're... ah... out of order!" Kagome jumped in. "You know what? My house isn't that far from here, you can use our toilet." 

"Really?" Nathania stared at Kagome her eyes wide and mouth slightly open in surprise. "But you hardly know me! I hardly know you! Surely there are some other public elephants... er... toilets situated near by..." 

"Well..." Kagome's mind raced. 'Well I can give her some of the truth... I guess. I'll just have to be careful about what I say.' "Nathania, have you ever heard of the 'Shikon no Tama'?" Kagome asked, crossing her fingers that even that small amount of information wouldn't give away too much.

"The Jewel of Four Elephants? No, I can't say that I have." Nathania replied now walking steadily along next to Kagome.

'What is it with this girl and elephants?' Kagome sweatdropped. "Ah, that's not the exact translation." She said, now leading Nathania down her home street. "But it is a very rare jewel. A long time ago it was splintered..."

"Really? How?" Nathania said interrupting, proving that she did that a lot as she pushed her sunglasses back onto her head, revealing her eyes. Kagome felt a shiver go up her spine when she saw them, an ice blue colour that seemed so unnatural to her that she couldn't help but immediately associate with demons. 

'But blue's not that strange a colour. My eyes are a shade of blue and it's supposed to be an even more common colour among gaijin, so it shouldn't worry me. I don't sense anything demonic about her, just a slight differentness... and it seems that she knows nothing about the Shikon no Tama... but her eyes just give me the creeps.' Kagome thought.

Encouraged by the fact that Nathania seemed to have no knowledge whatsoever about the Jewel of Four Souls Kagome decided to elaborate... slightly. She may not know about the jewel... but those eyes...

"A young maiden and a... um... dog that she had... ah... acquired were battling an evil youkai for the Jewel. Eventually the youkai decided to run away and fight again another day so he swallowed the jewel and started to fly away..."

"Fly? I thought you said 'Run away'?'

"Um... he had to have a run up to fly."

"Oh."

"Well the maiden couldn't let the evil youkai get away with the jewel and the dog wasn't doing anything useful (Well at that exact moment he wasn't. He was just crapping on about how the crow demon would keep flying on until he absorbed the jewel. Hoowee.) so she picked up her bow and shot an enchanted arrow at the youkai." 'Not a lot of exaggeration' Kagome thought, 'more like poetic license, maybe if I work on this I could hand it in for my writers class... Ak, don't think about that!' "Um, anyway this arrow hit the youkai and it exploded but unfortunately the enchantment on the arrow was so strong that it splintered the Jewel as well. My grandfather is really into legends like that and he'd love to possess a shard of it." Kagome stated, finishing the story at a fast pace.

"And you think that my earring is a shard of this Shikon no Tama?" Nathania queried, a serious look spreading across her face.

"Yes. But I don't want you to think that I'm the sort of person to con people out of their possessions, so I thought if you talked to Gramps..."

"Stop Kagome-san." Nathania turned thought into deed as she stopped and put her hand on Kagome's shoulder, pulling her to a stand still as well. "Is that the reason why you said the eleph... toilets were out of order? Did you just make that up to get me to your house, to see your grandfather, so he can convince me to give up something that's been in my family for generations? I don't know whether I should believe you Kagome-san." 

'No, no. This is exactly what I didn't want to happen!' Kagome fretted, unknowingly twisting her sailor fuku's tie in her fingers as she thought fast on her feet about how to undo what she had done.

Somehow, Nathania beat her to it. "I probably shouldn't do this but I like to think I'm a good judge of character and you strike me as someone I should trust, so although I'm going against all my better instincts here... let's see your grandfather."

"What?!" Total shock spread across Kagome's face as she heard Nathania say exactly what she didn't expect to hear. "Umm. You're okay with this then? I mean, this isn't what I expected to do but I know Gramps would be upset if I had just let you go." Kagome slowly started walking down the street again, seeing her house further down and wanting to get Nathania there before she could change her mind. Other thoughts careened through her head. 'It wouldn't have been Gramps who would've been upset if I let the shard get away.'

"But how do you know, or at least think, that my earring is a shard of this Jewel of Four Elephants thingie?"

"Ah, That's Jewel of Four Souls." Kagome said, without thinking.

"Really" A slight smile spread across Nathania's face. "Four souls?"

Kagome, not hearing Nathania's quiet words, turned to find the steps leading up to the shrine behind her. "Well we're here, do you want to speak to Gramps first or..." A cold shiver caused Kagome to pause mid-sentence and look over her shoulder.

"What is it Kagome-san?" Nathania asked, following her line of sight over to the other side of the road to where another blonde gaijin stood in the shadows, staring malevolently at both of them. A look of pure fear came to Nathania's face as she took a step away from the girl. "Kagome-san, perhaps we could do this some other time..." 

'What's going on here?' Kagome thought, gaze changing from the gaijin to Nathania then back to the gaijin. 'That girl's human, I think, but Nathania-san looks absolutely terrified of her.' Kagome took one step up the shrine's stairs, watching the gaijin. The stranger glared, but stayed where she was.

"Don't worry Nathania-san, let's see my grandfather." Kagome turned and took a couple more steps up the stairs. Sssshhhh..., a cold breeze touched Kagome's cheek. "Nathania-san?" Distracted by the breeze, Kagome tripped on the next step and fell, twisting her body so that she landed on her butt. "Ow." Kagome picked herself up from the ground, rubbing her sore and soon to be bruised rear. "Careful Nathania-san you wouldn't want t-to..." Kagome stuttered to a stop as she looked down onto the footpath. The entire street behind her was empty. (Imagine hooowoooo sound effect here. Hoowee.) 

'Ak! Where'd she go?' Kagome spun around, desperately scanning the road, trying to see where Nathania had gone. "Nathania-san?!" She called, hoping for some kind of and answer. She got none. 'Now that's really creepy. How did she disappear like that? And where did that other gaijin go?' 

"Kagome! There you are. Come help me get tea on the table." Kagome jumped a foot in the air as her mother appeared at the top of the stairs. 

"Okaasan, can you see any blonde gaijin from up there?" Kagome called out.

"Blonde gaijin?" Kagome's mother did a quick visual scan of the street. "No. All I see is a young Japanese girl who is about to miss out on her oden if she doesn't hurry up."

"Coming Okaasan!" Kagome stared down the street one more time, shuddered a little as if a spider had just crawled across her shoulders and then sprinted up the steps to the shrine, not looking forward to Inu Yasha would say when he found out about what had happened. Strangely, she found that she wasn't worried about Nathania at all. 'Maybe that gaijin scared her off.' Was the one and only thought she spared for the girl.

....~*~....

The vampire watched Kagome from the shadows, latest victim cradled to her chest like a child's favourite doll. Seeing her go into the house, the vampire decided to sit and wait to see what would happen, wanting to find out what this Shikon no Tama truly could do, sure that if she waited long enough something would happen, just as she had been sure that if she followed the girl she would find out some interesting information. Having a sixth sense was truly a wonderful thing. She slowly sat down on a crate and pulled the still alive girl onto her lap. "Shhhh, little snack." The vampire whispered, her finger pressed to her lips as she smiled lovingly down on her meal. "Don't cry, it makes your face go splotchy." 

The girl whimpered softly as the vampire gently wiped away her tears.

....~*~....

Meanwhile, back at the park...

"Nami-chan, I don't think Kagome-chan is coming back." Kuni said, laying back on the park table, watching the moon rise over the trees.

Nami just sort of nodded and continued to read her recently purchased magazine by the light of a close street lamp.

....~*~....

"Where is it?! Where'd it go?!" Kagome screeched, virtually throwing things from her desk onto the floor in a desperate search for one of her most precious possessions, her maths text book.

"Arg, I didn't leave it at the park, did I? I have to study or I'll fail. Ooh, where'd I put it?!" She sat down on the floor, elbows on knees, head in hands. 'Think, think, think. I can try to do it without the book. Yes, I can do that...' Kagome stood up again to look at her exercise book spread out next to sums of frightening difficulty. "Ahh! No I can't!" She laid back down on the floor next to her bed with two streams of silent tears running down her face. 'It's absolutely hopeless. I find out I have an overdue writing class assignment at school, I can't think out how to do my homework, I lost track of that Shikon shard and... oh today was just horrible.' Kagome sniffled a bit and then rolled over on to her tummy. 'Quit feeling sorry for yourself Higurashi, so today was a bad day, get over it.' She thought angrily, scrubbing away her tears with the back of her hand. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted her heavily packed back pack sticking out from under the edge of her bed. 'I guess I can at least tell Inu Yasha about that shard. He's not going to like it, but I guess he deserves to know.' With a heavy feeling on her soul, Kagome picked up her back pack and started towards the well.

....~*~....

A heartbeat moved in the darkness. The vampire stood up, letting the now dead girl drop from her lap to the ground. She didn't care. The corpse was cold and the heartbeat sounded so warm. With an unearthly grace that only inhuman creatures could ever obtain she left the dead girl at the base of the shrine steps and slid from shadow to shadow, a thing of darkness completely at ease in the silence of the night. 

Thump. Thump. Thump. Follow the heartbeat. Follow that taste on the breeze of life, of death.

The vampire stopped outside the door of a wooden building. Inside she could hear the thrum of blood beating, pulsing through a young healthy body. She ran her tongue over her teeth and felt her canines lengthen as her hunger grew. Pressing her face to a crack between the door and the wall from when Kagome had failed to shut it properly, she inhaled deeply, savouring the bloody scent on the air. Then it was gone. The vampire stood up straight in shock. Heartbeat's didn't do that. There was always, always, that quiver of the heart before it stopped, a change in pace, something to give away to those who could listen that a person's time with the grim reaper approached. To just disappear like that girl's had was simply impossible. 

With a mighty heave the vampire took hold of the door and flung it open, wrenching it of it's tracks. Inside the building was nothing, except an old well. The vampire slitted her eyes and stared hard, picking up the misty rose hued trail Kagome had left behind she followed it with her eyes until it went into the well. Taking a flying leap the vampire flew to the well and then hovered above it... and from that vantage point she could see the mist twine it's way down and then pool on the dirt at the bottom. Confused, she gently lowered herself down to stand in the foggy rose mud. Her feet touched the bottom and no less then a second later a high pitched ringing, starting from her head and moving throughout her body, caused her to fall to her knees. Then it was gone. Just as suddenly as it had appeared. Above, her sharp ears picked out the sound of the wind in the trees and soft voices. The vampire stood and stared at a night sky framed by trees that was four hundred years younger then the one she had admired last night. 

"Inu Yasha, would you please listen to me." That was Kagome's voice.

"Now this is interesting... " Nathania grabbed a clump of rocky dirt and started to climb out of the well.

'I live in the light, but carry my own darkness within me.'

Quote ?.

To Be Continued...

Notes from Hoowee.

Please E:mail me and tell me what you think at hoowee_darkelf@yahoo.com 

It's finished! It's finished! *Hoowee dances around her room in a mad caper*.

I know it's only the first chapter and I'm planning on doing at least four of them (groan) but I'm just so incredibly happy that I was able to write something that doesn't stop after just a page and actually has a proper story line working with it.  
I wrote this quite a while ago, before there was anything even discussed about there being an anime so there are bound to be some discrepencies, and for that I apologise. Sorry!

Thankyou's go out to Sailor Bob for all her support. (And making me check my grammar, blach, I hate the stuff.)

The biggest thankyou goes out to Rumiko Takahashi who created most of the wonderful characters that will appear in this fanfic. At least once a month the world is swallowed and I can escape into a place where things that I can only dream about actually happen. Thankyou.


	2. Crispy Fried Vampyre

**VAMPYRE**   
**Chapter Two: Crispy Fried Vampire**

**Author: **Hoowee  
**E-mail:** hoowee_darkelf@yahoo.com  
**Warnings:** Gothic horror, Blood and Strong Language.

**Disclaimer: **_Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me.   
The original character of Nathania does belong to me.  
No profit is being made from this fanfiction, kindly do not sue._

....~*~....

Inuyasha was sitting in a tree pondering the problem about where to go to get another Shikon shard when he caught Kagome's scent on the breeze, faint but definitely there. "What's that idiot wench doing turning up in the middle of the night." he growled under his breath, jumping down from the branch where he had spent most of that night, perhaps a bit more eager to see the girl most people took to be Kikyou's reincarnation then he was willing to admit to himself.

"Inuyasha, Kagome's back!" an overly excited Shippou shouted, bounding through the trees to happily grab onto Inuyasha's shoulder.

"She shouldn't have left in the first place. She should be helping us search for Shikon shards." Inuyasha said, stomping in his best grumpy mode towards the bone-eaters well, Shippou still firmly attached to his shoulder chattering on about some garbage that Kagome had filled his head with last time she was there.

"Shut-up, fox." Inuyasha growled. He was not in the mood to listen to Shippou spout shit. The kitsune pulled a rude face at the half-dog demon, adding some disgusting sound effects for good measure to show just how unafraid he was. The only thing that stopped him from acquiring a multitude of bruises was the fact that they both arrived at the well just in time to see if Kagome could defy the laws of gravity and get over the edge of the wooden frame with the weight of her pack dragging her back down to the bottom of the well. The sight just caused Inuyasha to stare for a minute, a sweat drop rolling down the side of his face. 'What the fuck does she put in that bag?' he had no idea, but it looked like gravity wasn't going to give up without a fight. "Baka." he growled and took a hold on her pack, lifting a dangling Kagome out of the well and setting her down on the soft ground next to it.

"Kagome!!" Shippou cried joyfully, leaping from his perch on Inuyasha's shoulder to hug Kagome. "It's so boring here without you!"

"Hello Shippou-chan." Kagome replied, squeezing Shippou slightly as she hugged him back. "I missed you too."

"Well girl, what caused you to come sneaking back here in the middle of the night?" Inuyasha asked, a scornful bite to his words, arms folded in front of his chest.

Kagome, in her usual way, ignored his angry stance and set Shippou down on the ground so that she could stand up straight and face Inuyasha. "I didn't sneak back for your information. I just thought that I should come back and tell you... "

"You didn't sneak back? What do you call turning up at midnight then?" Inuyasha cut in, determined that Kagome admit that she was sneaking.

"I don't call it sneaking! I call it having important information that some ungrateful dog-boy might want to know!" Kagome shouted back at him. 'Ungrateful youkai! I didn't have to come back here and tell him anything, I could've just stayed at home and concentrated on my school work.'

"Feh." Inuyasha just turned his back on her and stared moodily off into the forest. Shippou, still on the ground at Kagome's feet, looked first at one and then the other, wondering who was going to win this argument.

"Inuyasha, would you please listen to me." Kagome pleaded with him, walking around the stubborn half-demon so that she could look him in the eyes.

"Why should I bitch... " The voices of the arguing pair faded out as Shippou became distracted when his ears caught a different sound, a kind of scrabbling sound that was coming from inside the bone eaters well.

Unaware that curiosity killed the kitsune, or was that cat... Shippou crept up to the well, ears twitching. 'I am a demon I will not be afraid. I am a demon I will not be afraid... ' he repeated over and over in his mind, trying to prove the theory that if you say something often enough it will come true. Sidling up next to the well he pressed his back against the element-roughened wood and lifted his head up so that he could see the edge above him. Testing the air with his delicate nose he carefully sniffed the cool night wind, trying to discern what could possibly be following Kagome out of the well. 'Yuck! It smells like old blood.' he gagged, covering up his nose with one of his sleeves and going cross-eyed.

"Hey there cutie-pie!" Shippou looked up to see a yellow haired, ice eyed demon smiling down on him, showing off some very pointy teeth.

"Waahh!!" he cried in fear, leaping onto Kagome's shoulder and trying to hide under her hair.

"Shippou-chan?" Kagome said, twisting her neck so that she could see what had frightened the kitsune so much. That's when she saw Nathania. "Kyaa! Nathania-san!!"

Inuyasha turned around, curious about what a 'Nathania' was. Seeing some strange gaijin trying to hoist herself over the edge of the well, he felt an indescribable hate wash through him colouring everything a red haze. He wanted to slice open her gut with his claws and watch her insides puddle at his feet, he wanted to hear the death rattle of her last breath, he wanted to... he shook his head in disgust. Perhaps he would've done that once, but now he was starting to have to comply with his conscience, which was telling him at this moment that he'd already seen too many humans die.

'Feh. I'm getting soft.' He mentally lashed himself.

Not waiting for an explanation about who the girl was, Inuyasha leapt past Kagome towards the well, grabbing Nathania by her collar and hoisted her bodily out of the well.

"Um... hi Kagome-san... " Nathania smiled guiltily past the angry dog demon at Kagome, lifting her hand to wave in a very half hearted matter.

"How do you know Kagome, bitch?" Inuyasha growled in her face, invading her personal space so much that she actually tried to turtle her head back into her body before remembering that it was impossible, although she did a fairly good impression for all her effort.

"Answer me bitch!" Inuyasha growled again, shaking her this time as if it would shake loose her tongue.

"Inuyasha, stop that!" Kagome said, coming up behind him and grabbing him by his shoulders to reinforce her order. Shippou, still quivering under Kagome's black tresses eeped at coming so close to his 'demon' and scrambled down her back to the ground, hanging onto her leg with a death grip.

Nathania, who had been waiting for the two nasty guys to merge back into their original one nasty guy form, brought her hands up to hold her head together, groaning slightly for good effect.

"Ahhh... remind me to not annoy this guy on purpose." she half mumbled to herself, semi hoping that that 'Nasty-san' as she had internally dubbed him, heard and decided that picking on poor defenceless gaijin was rude. Inuyasha's only response was to shake her again, making Nathania feel slightly sick to the stomach. "Blagh... "

"Inuyasha!" One delicately pointed ear flicked around to Kagome's position followed by his head so that he could glare at her over the shoulder she had just released so she could cross her arms and tap her foot angrily at him.

"What? This wench followed you through the Bone Eaters Well girl and you want me to play nice to her?" He sounded incredulous. Catching a sudden whiff of what he was holding he wrinkled up his nose. "She smells like old blood!"

Coming round from her latest bout of shaking in time to hear this, Nathania lifted her head up so that she could speak into Inuyasha's other ear and said in a sugary sweet voice, "Well it is that time of the month you know."

"Gah!" Inuyasha's head spun around to stare into Nathania's eyes a faint blush rising in his cheeks. Nathania tilted her head to the side and smiled sweetly at him doing her best impression of the 'oh you silly boy' face that all girls manage to master by the time they turn five.

"Inuyasha, put her down, she's a friend." Kagome scolded. 'Well, we were on the way to becoming friends, just not quite yet, so it's not as if I'm being totally untruthful.' She justified to herself.

Inuyasha seemed to be having his usual bad reaction to trying to be nice and was slowly lowering Nathania down to the ground next to the well, grinding his teeth together, still feeling that strange hate bubbling away in his body. Nathania, refusing to have to look up at Nasty-san, immediately stood up, brushing off the seat of her pants.

"Nathania-san, are you all right?" worry filled Kagome's voice as she pushed past the peeved dog demon to stand next to the girl, not noticing the incredibly annoyed look on his face. "He didn't hurt you did he?"

Inuyasha snorted at this comment and walked over to a tree a couple of paces away, but not out of listening distance, to sulk.

"Yeah I'm fine. But Kagome-san, who is that elephant?" Nathania asked, flicking her finger out to point at the grouchy demon.

Shippou, who until that point had refused to let go of Kagome's leg, looked over at Inuyasha, then back at Nathania, eyes wide at what she had just said, tried to muffle a giggle, failed miserably and then fell to the ground laughing hysterically.

Kagome brought her hand up to her mouth to try and hide the smile that threatened to break out on her face. She wasn't very successful. "The one on the ground is Shippou," she added, eyes shining with held back laughter. "And, ah... he is Inuyasha." She couldn't help it, a giggle escaped. 

"Bwa ha ha ha!! Inuyasha's an elephant!" Shippou shouted, rolling by on the ground.

Suddenly realising that the 'elephant' comment had been about him, Inuyasha's head snapped around in shock. "Who the fuck do you think you're calling an 'elephant' bitch?!"

"Woops, wrong word again Kagome-san?" Nathania asked, seemingly unconcerned that she had just done exactly what she had told everyone to stop her from doing, namely annoying Inuyasha.

"Listen bitch... " Inuyasha started to say, walking menacingly towards Nathania, but was suddenly stopped short as a small pink elephant paraded in front of him trumpeting loudly.

"Wha...? Where did that come from?" Nathania asked no one in particular, leaning down to get a better look at the tiny, discoloured pachyderm. "I don't normally see these unless I'm drunk." She joked to Kagome, who was having a hard time not cracking up.

Inuyasha's reaction to this was a lot less restrained then Nathania's. He snarled and brought his fist down on top of the little elephant causing it to transformed back into its' original form of Shippou.

"Wak!!" The little kitsune cried, struggling to get out from under the older demons fist.

"Oh come on Inuyasha, it was just a joke, don't take it so seriously." Kagome said smiling at him cutely, hoping he wouldn't do something rash. Unfortunately, Inuyasha was rather good at doing rash things just when people didn't want him to.

"You bitch. Let's see what you think about this!" He spat out at Nathania, letting his anger boil over, cracking his knuckles and leaping towards her, intent on slashing her throat out.

"SIT!"

Doomf. Inuyasha landed on the ground just as quickly as he had left it, groaning slightly from the sudden impact.

"Cool trick Kagome-san! Can I learn it?"

Inuyasha glared at Nathania from his position on the ground, his mouth set in a silent snarl. 'If that bitch lays one hand on Kagome I'll...' he didn't know what he'd do, nor did he know why he felt so much hate for the gaijin, he just knew that he'd happily tear her to pieces if Kagome wouldn't have been so upset about it.

Nathania, by this point, seemed to have had enough time to get herself together and from the groups point of view, it looked like she had just noticed that she wasn't in Kansas any more, as the saying goes, as she was staring rather quizzically at the forest around them.

"Um... Kagome-san, I have another question." Nathania said, half raising he hand as if she was sitting in class waiting for the teacher to take notice of her.

"Is it about elephants?" Kagome giggled. In the background they both heard a "Feh." as Inuyasha proclaimed his disgust at the topic, but this didn't seem to break Nathania's inquiring mind.

"What's an elephant?" the question popped out of her mouth before she had time to think about it properly. Kagome stared at her in wonder.

'She truly has no idea what she just said?' It just seemed impossible that someone could throw in the silliest word at the funniest times and not know what she was doing. Nathania, who had gotten down on her knees, trying to coax an edgy Shippou out of hiding finally noticed the funny look Kagome was giving her and decided she better ask what was actually on her mind.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I don't particularly need to know what an elephant is." She grinned up at Kagome, shifting her weight to sit cross-legged on the ground so that she could pull Shippou into her lap and began scratching him on the head.

"Inuyasha's an elephant." Shippou said with a smile, enjoying the attention Nathania was paying to him, even if he was a bit uneasy about her strange colouring.

"I bet he is too." She replied, looking down at the cute kitsune who giggled at the idiotic idea of Inuyasha as an elephant. "But what I did want to ask Kagome-san is... well... where the hell are we?"

....~*~.... 

Meanwhile, back in present day Japan...

Mr Nakamura was sitting down in his favourite comfy chair again after a quick toilet break so that he could watch the rest of his favourite soap that he had had to tape this past week or face not seeing it at all because he was too busy answering questions for the police, reporters and seeing his psychiatrist. This time though he didn't have a can of beer in his hand, only a cup of hot tea. 'Beer does strange stuff to the mind.' he thought clenching his over sized hands around the warm cup, breathing in it's herbal aroma.

Thump, thump, thump.

Mr Nakamura jumped a foot in the air, spilling his hot drink down the front of his shirt as someone pounded on his front door.

"Bloody hell!" He shouted, not in the least amused about having scorched himself or in having added yet another shirt to the washing this week.

Thump, thump, thump.

"Keep ya bloody shirt on!" He yelled in the general direction of the door as he took his off, replacing it with his 'I pee in the shower and I vote' t-shirt that had been hanging over the back of one of the kitchen chairs.

Thump, thump, thump.

Whoever was outside was not in a patient mood.

Stomping over to the door in a foul mood, Mr Nakamura opened it with a bit more force then was necessary, causing it to slam into the wall and bounce back, hitting him in the face, adding to his anger. Seeing a group of young girls on his front porch, mostly gaijin, some not, alleviated some of his temper. It wasn't everyday that a bunch of pretty young things turned up on his doorstep, hell, come to think about it, it had never happened before.

"Ah, what can I do for you lovely ladies?" He asked smirking and leering at a pretty red-head with freckles. She didn't smile back.

"Urk!" his eyes widened in shock as the blonde in front of him whipped out some kind of pointy stick and pointed it at his heart.

"You can go quietly back into your house and answer our questions." Her voice sent fear shivering through Mr Nakamura's body, sliding around his soul like ice. 'She sounds like she's bloody dead.' The thought echoed around his head as he edged back into his home trying to avoid the pointy thing until he felt the back of his comfy chair against his legs.

"Tell us everything you know about Nathania." The blonde said, not a hint of emotion entering into her voice, pushing the stake harder against his chest causing the large man to fall backwards into his seat.

"Who the bloody hell is Nathania?" Mr Nakamura asked, refusing to let this little snip of a gaijin see how much she was frightening him, glancing from one pretty face to the next, trying to out stare them all and failing miserably in the face of such a lack of emotion.

Up on the mantle Mr Nakamura's mini grandfather clock struck the hour.

'What kind of girls bloody break into a strange man's home at four o'clock in the morning? What kind of girls bloody act like they're the bloody Grim Reapers brides?' He asked himself, beginning to break a sweat as the stake pressed even harder into his skin, drawing blood.

"Don't lie to us Nakamura-san." A young Japanese girl said, ice-fire flashing in her eyes as she produced a wicked looking curved knife. "You'll regret it."

A strange sound worked it's way out of Mr Nakamura's throat. Something that could almost pass for a whimper.

...~*~....

'Nathania-san seems to be taking this transported to the past idea pretty well' Kagome thought to herself as the group trudged back to the village, Nathania throwing Shippou up in the air and then catching him again, Inu Yasha stomping along behind them growling curses under his breath about ice-eyed gaijin who should know better then to follow Japanese girls into strange looking wells that they know nothing about.

'It's almost creepy how easily she accepted that we're now four hundred years in the past. All she said about it was "cool". She didn't even make a face about it, just accepted it and from that put together that the story I had told her concerning the Shikon no Tama was actually about me and Inuyasha.' Remembering Inuyasha's reaction to when Nathania had asked her if he was the dog that she had acquired brought a slight smirk to her face. 'Let him chew on that for awhile.' she giggled to herself, picturing again the look of total surprise that had appeared on his face. Feeling the suns first rays of light hit her in the face, Kagome sighed, half listening to Shippou as he question Nathania about her 'demonic' coloured hair and eyes. All around the group the forest started to turn a beautiful rose-gold colour as dawn chased away the cold loving shadows of the night.

"Kagome-san, how much longer until we come to this village?" Nathania asked, walking quickly up behind her, Shippou hitching a ride on her shoulder.

"Not that long now." Kagome smiled at her new friend. "But if you're going to talk to me now that you know my secret you're going to have to do something special." She gave Nathania a mock frown as the gaijin girl laughed at the silliness of it.

"Oh, and what might that be Kagome-san? Will I have to bring you the Golden Fleece or something of equal difficulty?" She laughed again, tickling Shippou under the chin causing him to join in with her infectious laughter.

"Nope. You just have to quit putting 'san' after my name." This caused Nathania to give Kagome a quick stare, eyebrows raising slightly as if to say, 'Have I made another mistake?'

"It's just that it makes us sound so much like strangers when we're not any more." Kagome explained, hoping that Nathania felt the same as she did. What the gaijin said next confirmed that.

"Okay Kagome, but fairs fair. If I have to quit saying 'san' then so do you. Deal?" Nathania stuck out her hand staring at Kagome with a broad smile on her face that she just couldn't help but smile back at. Nathania was just one of those girls that spread laughter like it was the cheapest thing in the world, easier to come by then air.

"It's a deal, Nathania." She said seriously, taking the other girls hand and shaking it to close the deal. Then the entire thing just became to silly for the both of them and they simultaneously fell to the ground giggling.

"What are you bitches so happy about." a grouchy Inuyasha snapped at the two girls as he stalked up to them.

"Just friendships and how silly some start." Nathania replied, standing up again, picking up Shippou and putting him back onto her shoulder where he cuddled into her, having decided that she wasn't a demon after all, just a funny coloured person. "I'm sure you know what I'm talking about Inuyasha." She grinned leaning back down to help Kagome up to her feet. It was at that unfortunate moment that the sun decided to reflect off of her Shikon fragment earring.

"A Shikon shard!" Inuyasha breathed, eyes widening with shock at seeing something so precious to him turn up on the idiotic gaijin. "Give it to me." He ordered, his hand reaching out to take it from her.

"Whoa! Slow down dog-boy, this four souls thingie is mine." Nathania said, stepping back out of reach. "The only person I'm giving this to is Kagome. I think. I'm not sure yet if I will." She frowned back at the dog demon, exchanging glare for glare.

"Kagome, did you know she had a shard?!" He turned and yelled at her, unwilling to give up.

Yes, actually I did." Kagome frowned back at Inuyasha as his jaw dropped in surprise.

"How could you keep something like this from me wench?!" He shouted. 'How could she not tell me?' he asked himself. 'She knows how much the Shikon no Tama means to me.'

"If you remember I did try to tell you about it, but you where too interested in trying to make me say that I was sneaking back here you jerk!" She shouted back, refusing to be cowed by the dog demons anger. Inuyasha breathed in deeply. He was NOT going to let a Shikon shard slide through his fingers. Waiting until Kagome turned away from him to apologise to the gaijin, he suddenly leapt at Nathania before any of the rest of the group had time to react, reaching for the earring resting safely on the girls ear lobe.

"INUYASHA! SIT!!" Kagome screeched, stopping the demon mid-leap again for the second time that morning. "Inuyasha!" How could you do something like that? That shard belongs to Nathania." If you'd asked nicely she might have given it to you but nooo, you have to try and take it from her by force don't you." Kagome yelled over to where Inuyasha was lying on the ground. Reacting to her voice, Inuyasha raised his head off the ground and smirked back at her.

"What?" Kagome asked, frowning with suspicion. Then she saw the bloody shard that Inuyasha was holding up in his other hand.

"Oh Nathania, I'm so sorry!" Kagome apologised to the thunderstruck girl, bowing low in embarrassment. Suddenly Shippou jumped into the air letting out a shriek as if something had bit him.

"HOT! HOT!" He screeched running towards Kagome, grasping at the seat of his pants.

"Wha... " Kagome started to ask the scorched kitsune but was cut off as Nathania let out a scream of utter pain.

Inuyasha, still lying on the ground recovering from his latest 'Sit' covered his sensitive ears with his hands, wincing with pain at the horrendous noise that Nathania was producing from her vocal chords.

"You BASTARD!" Nathania screamed, smoke pouring off of her body.

'What's going on?' Kagome thought, staring at Nathania, shocked into stillness.

Nathania started screaming again. A high, piercing note of absolute torture that rose in volume as the seconds progressed, causing Kagome to sink to her knees clutching a sobbing Shippou to her chest.

Then suddenly, there was silence.

Kagome and Inuyasha, both totally unprepared for what was happening, looked up at Nathania just in time to see her gasp out a huge amount of smoke that twined around her body like living vines and then burst into blue flames.

"Nathania, what's happening to you?" Kagome whispered.

**To Be Continued...**

**Notes from Hoowee:**  
_Just for those wondering where they are, this story is set before Miroku and Sango turn up, but not by much.  If the story plays out like I've planned it then the houshi should turn up in either the next chapter or the one after that.  (Hmm.  The more I write to this the more chapters I see occurring.) I don't know if I'll use Sango though. You never know though, if enough people want her there then she might just turn up at some point. ^.~v And just for anyone who thinks Inuyasha was being too nasty in this chapter, I agree with you, but it's all part of my master plan.  (Maniacal laughter.)_

**Quote:** You don't have to be afraid of the monster lurking in the dark if you are that monster - _ "?" Movie_


	3. Nathania

**VAMPYRE**  
**Chapter Three: Nathania**

**Author: **Hoowee  
**E-mail:** hoowee_darkelf@yahoo.com  
**Warnings:** Gothic horror, Blood and Strong Language.

**Disclaimer: **_Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me.   
The original character of Nathania does belong to me.  
No profit is being made from this fanfiction, kindly do not sue._

....~*~....

Inuyasha climbed unsteadily to his feet, hands still covering both of his ears. Quickly checking over his shoulder to see how Kagome was he saw that she had fallen unconscious, hugging the badly scared kitsune to her as if he was her anchor against a terrible storm. Deciding that Kagome was in no immediate danger, Inuyasha turned back to the scene he had, through his own ignorance, caused.

The blue flames that had enveloped Nathania licked at any foliage within reach, but nothing caught aflame, more it seemed that the rich green fauna was trying to lean away from the hell flame, writhering in pain as the unholy thing caressed it.

"What the fuck are you!?" Inuyasha shouted, moving no closer to the flaming girl, who in her intense pain had curled up into a ball, wrapping herself in her arms as if that would shield her from the destruction that was being wrought upon her body.

Nathania raised her head and through the flickering blue film Inuyasha could see two streams of blood tears falling down her face, which was quickly becoming savagely burnt and blistered.

"What would you care." The words were said so softly that it was only due to Inuyasha's sensitive ears that he could pick up the sentence at all and still with that advantage he had to lean closer to the unnatural pyre to catch what she said. That was his one mistake.

Nathania suddenly sprang up from her foetal position, reaching, no, more grasping desperately at Inuyasha's hand. Demon reflexes coming into play, Inuyasha leapt backwards to avoid her flaming grasp, drawing Tetsusaiga in one clean sweeping motion, but the magical blade did not transform.

"Shit" Inuyasha swore through clenched teeth, waving Tetsusaiga around in front of him as if it had a faulty connection that a little jerk could fix.

"Doesn't work does it Inuyasha." That was not a question. That was a statement.

Glancing up from his malfunctioning sword, Inuyasha saw a pointy toothed, Nathania grinning merrily.

"What?" You're not burning to death any more?" He asked incredulously, staring in disgust at the living corpse. All of her skin had been burnt away until only a thin covering of muscle sheathed her bones, but shining brightly in her skull were two ice blue eyes glittering, reflecting the rays of the rising sun.

"Nope. Got back my shard." That got Inuyasha's attention. Looking down at his hand, (the one that wasn't holding the Tetsusaiga) he saw burn scars ribboning up it to his wrist but felt no pain, only a curious coolness from the disfigurement he had received. Opening his hand from the clenched fist that it had formed to protect the stolen shard he saw nothing but his own blistered flesh. He hadn't even felt her take it.

"You fucking bitch! Give it back! He shouted, looking up to see Nathania try to reattach the shard to her ear, only to discover...

"Arg!! I don't have an ear lobe any more! It burned away! Now I'm PEEVED!"

Behind Inuyasha, Kagome sat up suddenly, eyes wide with fright accidentally squeezing the still unconscious Shippou too hard, causing him to squeak slightly as he too woke up. Glancing around as she stood up, wobbling a bit from going from horizontal to vertical so quickly, she saw Inuyasha standing with his back to her waving the untransformed Tetsusaiga at something she couldn't quite see because of his body blocking her view and the sun streaming into her eyes. Blinking rapidly and raising a hand to try and shade her eyes, Kagome cuddled a shivering Shippou closer to her, trying not to squish him this time and called out to the half demon.

"Inuyasha! Where's Nathania?!" the fear she felt for her friend expressing itself through her voice. 'What happened to you Nathania? What caused you to catch fire like that?' 

Inuyasha glanced over his shoulder in disbelief. 'She's worried about this demon?' 

Nathania, silently thanking Kagome for the distraction, leaped forward to cover the distance between herself and her opponent and punched Inuyasha as hard as she could in the stomach. The dog demon hunched over slightly as all the air ran out of his lungs, backhanding Nathania with the hilt of the Tetsusaiga causing her to fly backwards and slam into a tree with enough force to temporarily cause her to black out.

"Dammit Kagome! That Nazania friend of yours isn't human!" He shouted behind him to where Kagome now stood staring, eyes wide at what Inuyasha had indicated through his little speech, was Nathania. The being of charred muscle and bone had regained consciousness and was trying to rise to her feet, using the tree she had slammed into as a support for her weight.

"It's Nathania you git. Na-Tha-Ni-A. At least try and get my name right."

Pushing away from the tree Nathania slowly started walking towards Inuyasha who had backed up to Kagome, trying to make sure that she was not open to any surprise attacks from the gaijin.

"Nathania what's wrong?! What happened?!" Nathania brought her head up to look Kagome straight in the eyes, her body swaying slightly as she came to a stand still.

"What happened? Nasty-san here took away my SPF 100+ that's what happened!" Nathania spat out, anger prominent in her voice as she tried to take another step towards Inuyasha but because of her recent 'tanning' and the ensuing fight she was much too weak and the badly burned muscles in her legs gave out causing her to topple to the ground groaning in pain.

"Nathania!" Kagome yelled, racing around Inuyasha to the girls side, hesitating to actually touch her burned skin for fear of causing her more pain.

"Kagome you idiot, she's the bad guy!" Inuyasha shouted, running up behind her and hauling her back away from Nathania who had recovered slightly and was trying to sit up again, joints creaking horribly as she forced them to take there normal positions. Sighing softly, she looked up to see Inuyasha glaring down on her, holding Kagome back by the shoulders. She couldn't see where Shippou was.

"I know it's almost tradition at this point for me to insult you and then try to still win a fight that I know I'll lose, but do you think we could break with tradition this time and try to talk this out?" She asked, her voice beginning to take on a raspy note as she finished the sentence.

"Feh." As if we'd trust your word when you've just tried to... ah?" Inuyasha stopped in mid-sentence as Kagome, who had somehow gotten herself free from him, sat down next to Nathania and started glaring up at him.

"I think that's the smartest idea I've heard so far." She said to Nathania, pointedly ignoring the gaping half demon.

"I'm guessing that you're wanting an explanation of my flaming performance...?" Nathania half asked Kagome but kept glancing up to Inuyasha, knowing that he was just as intrigued and a lot happier to kill if her explanation didn't live up to his standards. Catching him sneering at her she smiled back at him. Unfortunately, because all the skin and muscle around her mouth had been burned back her smile showed off her fangs to their best advantage, long and sharp.

"Answer my question from before bitch, what are you?" Inuyasha said, sitting down right in front of her, the Tetsusaiga resting in his lap, easily within reaching distance if she tried to pull anything.

Much to his annoyance, all she did was grin all the more, a truly gruesome sight when bone, skin and muscle are all melted together.

"I take it you don't run into a lot of my kind in Japan huh? Well if you can pronounce it, I'm a vampire." This produced a noticeable lack of a surprised reaction. If anything, Inuyasha just glared at her harder. But Kagome, sitting to Nathania's right, her legs folded neatly to the side, frowned slightly as if she were trying to remember something.

"What the fuck's a 'bamupaire'?" The dog demon snarled, leaning in to stare Nathania right in the eyes. Nathania, feeling rather light headed, stuck out her tongue at him. "It's 'vampire' you git. With a 'V'." Inu Yasha snorted and leaned back again, hand resting on the Tetsusaiga.

"You mean you're like Durakura?" Kagome asked suddenly, swinging around so that she could look at Nathania properly.

Nathania felt a sweat drop slide down the side of her cratered face.

"Durakura? Pardon me Kagome, but what's a 'Durakura'?"

"Count Durakura. I think he was a... vampire, from Transylvania." Kagome clarified, brow furrowing as she concentrated, trying to remember what she had heard about the gaijin story in her English class.

"Oh, Dracula! Yes, well, I'm kinda like Dracula, but you've got to remember that he was a fictional vampire so the author was able to take a lot of poetic licence to make it more... interesting I guess. Some things are the same, some aren't." After saying that Nathania brought her arms around her body, hugging herself as a sudden fit of shivers racked her body.

"Nathania?" Kagome asked, putting her hands on the vampire's shoulders only to snatch them back again. 'Her skin's so hot. It's as if she's still burning inside.' She thought, massaging the scalded flesh on her palms.

"Sorry about that." Nathania rasped softly, unfolding herself so that she was sitting up straight again. "Hell-fire's a nasty thing. It's been so long since I last struggled with it I'd forgotten that it likes to inflict pain long after the flame itself is gone." Inuyasha snorted.

"I still don't know what a... vampire is bi... " He stopped the sentence when he saw Kagome glaring at him, shrugged his shoulders, then continued. "...girl. And I don't know what a 'Durakura' is either. So... " drawing out the sentence, he looked up from the Tetsusaiga and snarled at Nathania.

"... tell me just what kind of damn youkai you are or I rip out your rib cage and wear it as a hat.

"Fine, fine. Enough with the graphic threats." Nathania sighed theatrically and struck a pose. "It all began... " Suddenly she stopped. "Um, Kagome, just how far back in the past are we?"

"About 400 years... I think." Kagome answered, slightly confused.

"What the fuck's that got to do with what you are?!" Inu Yasha growled, impatient as always.

"It's backing story you elephant. Vampires aren't like your average youkai you know. We all start out quite human." Inuyasha snorted at the elephant comment, but let it slide. 'She's just a stupid gaijin, what does she know.' He thought to himself. Then he caught the last part of what she said. 

"You're human?!" He asked surprised, hand curling around the Tetsusaiga's hilt.

"I didn't say that. I said I started out as a human. Now, if I can continue with my grand story...?" Nathania looked over to Kagome, eyes large and shining in what on a normal person would have been a puppy dog gaze, but on a half-naked, fried vampire, the effect was frightening. Kagome swallowed loudly and glanced over to Inu Yasha, but the dog demon was lost in thought, his burned hand running lightly over the blade of the fang.

"Umm... sure." Kagome said, forcing a smile onto her face.

"Okay. Like I was saying before Nasty-san interrupted here... " Hearing this Inuyasha started to pay attention properly. 'She may be a stupid gaijin, but... she's not a human or a youkai either, this explanation could be interesting.' He thought to himself.

"... it all began, or will begin, in about forty to fifty years from now. My name was Nathania Elida Heyward and I was nineteen, almost an old maid. Papa had such terrible trouble trying to get me betrothed, I was wild and not at all what a poor European farmer wanted for a wife." Nathania chuckled softly to herself, remembering some unvoiced pranks of her girl-hood. "Eventually he threw me out of home, not willing to keep feeding an extra mouth that caused so much trouble, not when I had eight younger siblings and most of them boys, much more able to help Papa out on the farm." Mamma cried so hard but I thought it was just going to be another grand adventure and I left singing a song that I can't even remember any more." Nathania smiled softly at her own foolishness. "By winter I was half dead. I was starving, dirty and disease riddled from all the times I had sold my body for food or shelter. Such a pathetic creature I had become that I'm surprised that I drew even a vampire's attention. But I did. He just walked up one night and introduced himself as Colvin. No last name, no title. Not that I cared that much, not when he was offering free food. I should have paid more attention, maybe then I would have remembered that Colvin means 'dark friend', maybe I still wouldn't have cared, it doesn't matter that much any more.

He was such a good friend that night, listening to my grievances and cleaning me up whenever I was sick, but at dawn he left, no matter how much I pleaded with him to stay with me. He said that he'd come back again at dusk but just the thought of being alone again was frightening. I would have chased after him if I hadn't been so weak.

That day I just lay on the side of the road in a ditch without the strength to even move out of my own vomit and mess. God the stench was incredible. All day I lay there, shouting out to any passer-by, cursing them when they left, scurrying past like frightened mice to get away from the mad girl. When night returned so too did he. I was so happy. Not so much that he'd come back but that he'd kept his promise to me and I wouldn't have to be alone. He said that he had more food but that it had been too much to carry to me so he'd decided instead to carry me to it. He did too. Just picked me up in his arms and walked half the night. Oh how I marvelled at how strong he was, and how romantic to be carried through the night by such a handsome man. Not long past midnight we came to a copse of trees were he set me down next to another man... " Nathania stopped her story suddenly and glanced around at the trees surrounding the trio.

"What are you doing bitch? For all your 'backing story' you still haven't told me anything." Inuyasha growled. But then his ears caught what had attracted Nathania's attention.

"Inuyasha, what's happening?" Kagome whispered, creeping closer to the half demon and scanning the trees with her human eyes.

"FOX FIRE!"

Inuyasha pulled Kagome out of the flaming fire-balls path, jumping back just in time. Nathania though, wasn't so lucky. Not being able to move quickly enough to get out of the fire-balls path she took the full force of the attack head on, not letting out even a whimper as the heat exploded around her.

"Nathania!" Kagome screamed, half deafening Inuyasha who still had a tight hold on her in case she tried to do something stupid again like run over to the burning vampire.

"Again with the frying! Does somebody up there have PMS?!" Nathania asked sarcastically, standing up slowly, her joints creaking.

' Looking around she saw strange men rise out of their hiding spots all around her, holding bows with arrows cocked, all pointing directly at her.

"Kagome! I brought the men from the village to save you! Shippou cried, leaping from the shoulder of one of the men into Kagome's waiting arms.

"You stupid fox, you almost got Kagome and me with that fox fire trick of yours!" Inuyasha growled, releasing his grip on Kagome so that he could take a swipe at the kitsune.

"Oh! Nathania!" Kagome cried, turning quickly to look over to where the girl had been sitting when the fox fire had hit her. Much to Kagome's surprise, Nathania was standing up, arms crossed awkwardly in front of her chest, death-glaring all the villagers.

"Where... What happened to the fox fire?" Kagome stuttered, seeing none of the red glowing flame anywhere around Nathania.

"Just another perk to being a vampire, only hell-fire burns me any more." Nathania answered, trying to keep herself covered. "Although it did burn away the rest of my clothes... " She half muttered to herself, hunching over slightly. Hearing a rustle of clothe she looked up just in time to catch Inuyasha's coat.

"I still don't trust you bitch." He growled. Catching Kagome staring at him he frowned at her. "What the hell are you looking at?"

"That was very sweet Inuyasha." Kagome smiled at him, walking over to Nathania who was just finishing tying the coat around herself. Shippou scrunched down in Kagome's arms as she approached Nathania, trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. Seeing him there, Nathania gave what she hoped was a comforting smile, something that's incredible hard to do when most of your face is a blistered, cracked mess.

"Hey there Shippou. Did you do that fox fire trick?" She asked bending down to him. Shippou eeped and tried to burrow under Kagome's arm.

"I'll take that as a yes." Nathania grinned. "Don't worry Shippou, your fire didn't hurt me and you were only doing what you thought was right, I can't really blame you for that." Shippou lifted his head and stared back at Nathania.

"Just don't do it again, I doubt that Inuyasha would like his coat to go up in flames." Nathania laughed.

Kagome smiled at her comment, thinking about how the coat had actually saved her from being burnt to death when she and Inuyasha were fighting Yura of the hair. 

"Somehow I don't think you have to worry about that." Kagome said, happy to have her friend back, even if she was a bit fried. Looking around she saw all the men glancing at each other, obviously wondering what was going on.

"Um... everything's alright, Nathania's a friend." She called out to them.

"Yup, I promise not to suck on any of your necks, 'kay." Nathania piped up.

The bows that had been slowly lowering suddenly all in unison swung back up to point back at her. Kagome sighed.

"Honestly, she's a good youkai... like Shippou and Inuyasha. Inuyasha snorted when he heard that comment, but it seemed to calm down the village men as they lowered their bows and started walking back to their homes, mumbling slightly about having been woken up so early and how it was useless to try to go back to sleep now that the sun had risen.

"Umm... Kagome, I'm not sure you can class a vampire as a youkai. Nathania whispered to the girl standing next to her.

"Then what IS a vampire." Inuyasha said, stalking over to where the girls and the kitsune were, his dog ears able to pick out Nathania's comment. "For all your 'backing story' I still don't know what you are."

Nathania fidgeted slightly, a little uncomfortable with the half demons gaze.

"Well, um... to cut a long story short, I became a vampire not long after where I left off and now have to drink blood to survive. Sunlight causes me to burst into hell fire but thanks to this Jewel of Four Souls thingie I can move around in the day, it's really quite handy." She smiled over to Kagome. "But if you really need it I suppose I can hand it over." Just tell me when you've collected the rest of the jewel and I'll give it too you. That's a promise."

"Feh." As if we're going to tell you when the Shikon no Tama is completely recovered so you can steal it." Inuyasha spat, not at all happy with Nathania's proposed plan.

"Listen Nasty-san, one shard is all I need to combat the one thing that can kill me, sunlight, and I've already got that, I don't want or need the rest of the thing." Nathania stated, sticking her finger up at the angry demon.

Suddenly a thought occurred to Kagome, who had been thinking about how to get some proper clothes for Nathania.

"Kyaa! I left my back pack at the well!" She wailed. "Inuyasha could you pleeaase go and get it for me?" She begged the dog demon who was still having a staring contest with Nathania.

"Yeah, go fetch doggie." Nathania cooed, shooing him with her hand.

Inuyasha snarled a foul curse at Nathania and, grumbling to himself about stupid girls, gaijin or otherwise, he started trudging back to the bone eaters well while Kagome, Shippou and Nathania walked the opposite direction towards the village.

"I didn't think he'd go that easily." Kagome whispered to Nathania, hoping they were out of range of the half demons sensitive ears. Nathania just laughed softly.

"Old Jedi mind trick." Nathania giggled. "Just another perk of being a vampire. I can't read minds but I can send out emotions that other people tend to latch onto."

Giggling to each other, the two girls and Shippou kept on walking.

....~*~....

Meanwhile, back in present day Japan...

Nami and Kuni were on their way back from Kagome's house after having been there to find out what illness was preventing her from attending her classes this time.

"Poor Kagome. Imagine having deciduous collateral trouble with your pseudopods. Kuni sighed, not realising the ridiculousness of her statement.

"Yeah." Nami agreed, frowning. Something about that ailment didn't sound quite right. "It's probably the reason why she didn't come back last night too." She commented but Kuni wasn't paying any attention, instead she was looking over to a shadowed alley where a group of six girls were staring at them.

"Delinquents." she muttered under her breath, picking up her pace as the other group started to send her rude hand gestures, forcing Nami to run a couple of steps to catch up with her.

"Hey, do you think we should tell Hojo about Kagome?" She asked, a match-making plan taking formation in her mind.

Heads close together as they giggled their way through a Kagome/Hojo scheme, neither of the girls seeing the other group smile after them, then, perfectly timed, turn their heads towards Kagome's house, still smiling.

....~*~....

A droplet of pure crimson hung delicately off the tip of Nathania's finger as she studied it, holding it up to the harsh light of the newly risen moon. Slowly, gravity took its final hold on the tear shaped liquid, breaking the connection it had to a pulse, leaving it to fall through the cool night air. The ground at Nathania's feet cared little about the drop when it hit. The slightest amount of dust rose from the tiny impact but, just as silently as it had been raised, it soon settled once again back onto the earth, not noticing as the hungry soil absorbed the red liquid back into itself.

'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.' Nathania mused to herself, feeling the night breeze flow over abused body and then leave to blow around the pile of broken rat bodies she had piled up behind her.

"Nathania. How are you feeling?" Kagome asked, walking up behind the girl, carefully stepping around the gruesome mound and sitting down next to her, concern showing on her face.

"Better I guess" came the lacklustre reply, Nathania still staring at the soaked earth at her feet. "I don't feel like I'm burning up inside any more. But Kagome, rats blood just isn't going to work." With this said she stood up suddenly, kicking the ground viciously, sending up a dust cloud.

"Are you sure Nathania? We could try something bigger I guess... " Kagome's sentence trailed off as she looked up to Nathania who was shaking her head.

"Yes I'm sure Kagome. I could drink a million rats dry and I'd still be this walking corpse like thing. I need human blood." She looked down at Kagome, smiling as she put her hands into the pockets of the trousers she had borrowed off the girl, scrounging a pair out of her back pack along with a shirt, no simple task since Kagome had a penchant for wearing skirts.

"Ah, but therein lies the problem doesn't it. I promised you that I wouldn't drink the blood of anyone from this village didn't I." She laughed at herself and lent down to offer her hand to Kagome so that she could pull her up.

Feeling Nathania's dry, cracked skin next to hers Kagome suppressed a shudder.

'But it feels cool now, not burning.' She thought, standing up so that she was facing Nathania.

"It must be terrible to have to kill to have to survive." Kagome sympathised, pity for Nathania showing.

"Oh I don't have to kill them when I feed. I just do." Nathania said, staring up at the moon.

"WHAT!" Kagome edged back from the vampire, not too sure how to take this statement.

"Don't look at me like that Kagome. There's always going to be something higher then something else on the food chain and vampires prey on humans. I kill indiscriminately, one week it could be a middle aged business man the next a school girl. I'm just another of nature's ways of keeping the human population from exploding over the planet, no nicer then disease or famine but needed just the same."

"But, if you don't have to kill, if you have that concious decision... " Kagome asked, wondering finally about what kind of friend she had made when she met Nathania.

"I've been through the moral debate a thousand times before Kagome and every time I run up against a brick wall. I'm here to kill humans and that's the end of it." Nathania sighed, obviously not too impressed with her options.

"But I can't do that here can I? You're my friend, or at least that's how I think of you, and I don't want to hurt you or any of your friends. Best sure-fire way of not getting eaten by a vampire... make friends with them. So, after thinking about it, I've decided to wander off for a while, see who I can feed off, that sort of thing." Nathania shifted her gaze from the moon back to Kagome's face, searching her features for some sign of revulsion at the fact Nathania had just put to her."

"Do you have to leave right now? You could wait until Lady Kaede comes back. Maybe she could do something... " Kagome stopped, seeing Nathania take her first step towards the forest.

"I'll be back here in a week or two, okay Kagome, and by then I'll be back to my normal old self." She grinned at her friend and then started running, not looking back.

"Feh. I'm glad she's gone." leaping down off of Keade's roof, Inuyasha landed beside Kagome, staring after the retreating vampire, arms folded in front of his chest. "She just better keep her promise and hand over that Shikon shard when we need it." He growled. Looking over his shoulder he saw Kagome still watching as Nathania vanished into the forests trees.

"She'll be back." Kagome stated, not knowing if that would be a good or a bad thing.

**To Be Continued...**

**Notes from Hoowee:**  
_Yes, the Durakura bit was silly but I needed it so that Nathania would have difficulty in understanding what Kagome meant and it IS difficult trying to figure out some English words when they're pronounced with a Japanese accent.  
Just for the curious Nathania is the feminine version of Nathaniel, (well duh) which is Hebrew for 'God has given.' Or at least that's what it says in my little book of '2,000 Babies Names: With origins and meanings'. Handy little book that. Oh, and Heyward apparently means 'dweller by the dark forest', while Elida means 'the exiled'. Go figure.  
ARG!! The chapters grow! Looking on my little planning sheet it now shows a grand total of seven chapters and an epilogue. Good grief, can you put up with that much crappy writing?  
Just on a finishing note, ten points to anyone who can pick the Buffy quote I threw into the story!_

**Quote:** Every light casts a shadow and no shadow can exist without a light. - _"?"._


	4. Regeneration

**VAMPYRE**  
**Chapter Four: Regeneration**

**Author: **Hoowee  
**E-mail: **hoowee_darkelf@yahoo.com  
**Warnings:** Gothic horror, Blood and Strong Language.

**Disclaimer: **_Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me.   
The original characters of Nathania and Colvin do belong to me.  
No profit is being made from this fanfiction, kindly do not sue._

....~*~....

A tiny green shoot, bathing in the last rays of the evening sun, sighed a little green sigh. Soon... soon he knew he would be as big and tall as the oldest trees in the forest and he could then pick up the clouds with his highest branches and toss them up to heaven to surprise the angels.

Content with his dreams of touching the sky, he never saw the foot that stepped down on him, crushing him to a gooey pulp.

"Sheesh, How long does this forest go on for?" Nathania panted, leaning over to put hands on her knees as she stopped her trek through the forest for a quick breather.

Staring at her hands she noticed the distinct lack of any improvement to the burns the hell-fire had left on her about a week and a bit ago, when she'd left Kagome and Nasty-san back at that village.

'Not that I didn't see any tasty treats walking around in that last village I past.' She thought to herself sarcastically, pushing herself back up to stand straight and blew a wisp of regrown hair out of her eyes.

'Wonder when it'll be long enough to plait again?' She wondered idly, setting off again at a swift walking pace, studying the strange fauna around her.

Five minutes into her journey her stomach rumbled loudly, protesting it's empty state. She stopped again rubbing her angry tummy with her hands.

"Dammit. Talking to Kagome brought up all those stupid moralistic issues again. I should've just chomped down on those kids I found yesterday instead of their dumb pet. I should've... " She growled something incomprehensible to the wind and kicked a stone out of her way, sending it ricocheting through the oncoming shadows.

"Well I'm sick and tired of being weak. The next pers... no, thing, that's unfortunate enough to cross my path becomes lunch... or tea, depending on your point of view." She smiled after announcing this to the world, a nice wide smile that showed off he sharp fangs to their best and then set off again, a new determination showing in her stride.

....~*~....

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, not so far away...

Jaken was mumbling to himself as he collected dry sticks off the ground for his lord Sesshoumarus fire that night when a rather large stone flew through the gathering shadows of dusk and connected with his head with a savage sounding 'Crack!'

"Gwak!" He cried, more in surprise then pain, as he fell over onto his side, dropping the paltry load of sticks he had managed to gather together.

"Now where'd that be comin' from?" He muttered, rubbing the rising lump appearing on the side of his head in a wonderful shade of purple and blue.

Standing up he eyed the offending rock as if it should be embarrassed about who it had just hit. The rock didn't care, here was just as nice a place as anywhere else it had been.

Being distracted by the unsympathetic rock, he didn't see the shadows melt off of a strange figure appearing silently behind him.

Nathania, not being distracted by any flying rocks, took a second to study the strange creature that had it's back to her, frowning slightly at the strangeness of it all.

'Since when did midgets travel the forests of feudal Japan?' she queried to herself, but then brushed the question aside, her stomach making the final decision. 'He doesn't even come up to my knee... but I'm so hungry! Guess I'll just have to settle for a snack.' Taking a step towards the short demon she didn't notice a strange looking stick in her path, bringing her foot down on it with enough force to produce a shriek of protesting wood. 'Wood? Does wood shriek?' She shook her head to dispel anymore idle thoughts she turned to see the midget staring up at her in shock.

"Kya! You look even more fried then I do!... Wait a minute, did I just say 'Kya'?" Nathania hit herself with the palm of her hand, she had spent wa-ay too much time in Japan.

Jaken, seeing the staff of heads quite neatly caught under the foot of this horribly burnt demon, took that exact moment to make a hasty retreat.

'No sense in gettin' me self killed when Sesshoumaru-sama will be wantin' information of this new upstart demon in the same vicinity as m'Lord.' He thought, scrambling to get into the shadows before he was noticed.

Too late, he was suddenly tackled to the ground, cracking his head against that same damn rock again.

Nathania sat up from being sprawled out across the midget, spitting out leaves and dirt.

"Plagh! Well in my humble opinion dirt tastes like dirt no matter where you are in the world. She muttered, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth. Reaching over she grabbed the dazed Jaken by one of his arms and hauled him over so that he was in front of her.

"Ye'll get nothin' from me!" Jaken squawked, struggling to free himself from Nathania's vice-like grip.

"Wanna be my lover?" Nathania asked, her face a picture of seriousness.

"Wak?!" Jaken stopped struggling, wide eyed, a sweatdrop rolling down the back of his head. No one had ever asked him THAT before.

"Just joking." Nathania chuckled, seeing the look of absolute surprise that her question had brought to her small victims face. "You're just going to be a meal, that's all." She grabbed Jaken with both hands and pulled him close to her, hugging him to her chest. Kissing him softly on the side of his wrinkled neck she opened her mouth wide, her fangs lengthening, preparing to bite through skin and muscle.

"SESSHOUMARU-SAMAAAAAA!!" Jaken yelled shrilly at the top of his voice, feeling something sharp and cold press against the vulnerable skin of his neck.

Nathania bit down hard, feeling the midget stiffen in her grasp, and then the blood flowed.

....~*~....

Sesshoumaru was sitting cross legged on the ground leaning against a tree, half dozing as the moon rose above the trees when he heard Jaken scream his name. A frown formed across his delicate features as he opened his gleaming golden eyes and he snorted in disgust at how incompetent Jaken had become.

'What has that arsehole managed to do this time?' he asked himself, folding his arm across his chest, the best he could do to actually cross his arms since his mongrel half brother had sliced his other arm off with the Tetsusaiga.

Shifting so that his weight was no longer supported by the tree's trunk he sat up straight and scanned the shadows surrounding the clearing where he had decided to spend the night in a rather bored fashion, his nose telling him far more then his eyes.

He snorted in derision again. Nothing was out there but Jaken, burnt flesh and the slightest scent of fresh blood mingled with old. The little fool had probably tripped over the staff of heads, scorching himself.

Uncaring of what evil may have befallen his fool retainer he lounged back against the tree with the casual grace of a predator, eyes closed in the semblance of sleep.

Snap!

Keeping his relaxed posture Sesshoumaru smiled softly to himself. Some mortal was out there in the dark trying to sneak up on him. The entire idea was laughable.

Letting the fools scent wash over him he picked out distinguishing smells. The idiot was a female carrying with her like a shroud the stench of old blood and burnt skin. Sesshoumaru stiffened slightly as he picked out a more familiar scent mingled in with the rest of the girls stenches.

'Jaken's blood is twined through her body.' A low growl rumbled in his chest. How dare some mortal bug slice his servant.

Another twig snapped followed by soft hiss of complaint.

Leaping across the little clearing he grabbed the noisemaker by the throat a slammed her against a tree, fingers tightening slowly to cut off her air-way.

"What where you doing skulking in the shadows over there witch?" He asked the struggling girl, tone laced with boredom as he watched her grasp at his hand with her fingers trying to pry it away from her throat.

"... Not a... witch... tha's Trin... Ack!" Nathania's eyes bugged as Sesshoumaru tightened his grasp.

"I will ask once again. What where you doing in the shadows?" Turning his head slightly he eyed her, waiting for her answer, adding more pressure to her throat. Nathania kicked out at him, desperate to distract him long enough to be able to free herself.

'Not working Nathania,' She thought, black spots dancing across her eyes, 'time to cheat.'

Sesshoumaru smiled as the girl went limp and stifled a yawn.

"Pathetic." he swung around and threw Nathania to the ground, watching her bounce once then slide to a stop.

Nathania sat up slowly as the dust settled around her, groaned slightly then started a hacking cough, one of her hands coming up to rub at her bruised throat.

'Ouch. Okay, that hurt and I'm distinctly sure that I heard something go crack when I hit the ground. Damn, that means I'm going to need more blood...' Cracking an eyelid open she peeped over to where Sesshoumaru was standing, smiling at her.

'Oh crap. Why is it that bad-guys always have to smile before they do something nasty.' She squeezed her eyes shut again and concentrated really hard.

Sesshoumaru took a step towards his prey then stopped, a feeling of muzziness settling into his head.

Nathania grinned and tried to stand up so that she could face the demon properly.

"Crap." She whispered to herself wincing in pain when she put pressure on her left leg. 'Not a good time to have problems getting mobile girl.' she thought, half hobbling, half running over to where Sesshoumaru stood, shaking his head to clear away the drowsiness. Placing a cool hand on his neck to steady herself she leaned in opening her mouth wide to take a bite... and for all her troubles was whacked across the face as Sesshoumaru regained his alertness.

Nathania stumbled back a few paces, crying out when she put all of her weight on her broken leg then felt something warm and salty running from her nose to the corner of her mouth. Licking the blood away with her tongue she looked over to where Sesshoumaru now stood glaring at her with pure hatred radiating from those gold eyes that glowed in the darkness with a feral light.

"I no longer care what you were doing trying to sneak up on me bitch. I'm just going to kill you." he growled, a low rumbling sound that vibrated through his chest.

"How come every white-haired, girly-looking guy I come across calls me that?! It's so rude!!" She muttered loudly, hoping to distract him somehow, anyhow, or she'd end up dead.

Sesshoumaru raised his hand to just in front of his face, cracking his knuckles.

Nathania shuddered at the sound, then stared in disbelief as she saw two lines twine up around the youkai's wrist until they touched his hand.

Moving faster then Nathania could have possibly thought he leapt straight at her, hand clawed out in front of him.

Maybe it was just an accident or maybe the universe thought Nathania could use a break, but just before Sesshoumaru's poison claw contacted with her head her broken leg gave out, causing her to fall to the ground in pain while Sesshoumaru's momentum carried him forward until his hand struck the tree directly behind her melting it to a pus-like ooze.

Cursing, he drew his hand back then suddenly let loose a bellow of anger as he kicked out with his leg, sending Nathania flying past the melted tree.

"You fucking bitch!!" He roared at her, feeling warm blood running down his shin.

Nathania just smiled over at him and stood up, all signs of her broken limb gone as she stood, wiping her mouth with her hand then licked the last bits of blood off her fingers.

'Something about this blood is so intoxicating.' She thought, feeling power run through her body causing her to shiver with pleasure. 'Just the same and even more so then that other little midget I feasted on. Damn me for leaving him alive. I should of drained him dry.'

Her thoughts stopped rapidly as Sesshoumaru leaped at her again with his claw outstretched. Twisting her body she managed to move out of the poison claws path but Sesshoumaru pivoted almost mid-air and slashed at her, leaving a trail of fire across her cheek as some of her skin melted away to reveal he jaw bone beneath.

"Okay, I was peeved when Nasty-san indirectly caused my ears to burn off, but you're trying to melt my face off and I am now officially PISSED!" Nathania yelled at Sesshoumaru letting loose a growl of her own, curling her lips back so that he fangs could be seen as they grew to their full length.

Sesshoumaru snarled his contempt, coming towards her once again, death in his eyes.

Nathania stood her ground, concentrating so hard that the muzziness hit Sesshoumaru like a fist, causing him to stop and grasp his head with his hand.

Taking the opportunity, Nathania covered the small amount of ground still separating them and then pressed herself against Sesshoumaru's body, uncaring as his armour bit into her scarred skin, only hearing the pounding of the youkai's blood as it pumped through his veins.

"And now for the main course." She whispered throatily, stroking Sesshoumaru's neck, feeling the warmth through her fingers.

She bit down hard and sucked greedily as the first gush of blood filled her mouth but it wasn't enough, she wanted more. So she dragged her teeth across his neck, slicing open the skin so that more blood flowed from the wound she was inflicting. Lapping at the salty liquid she looked up at Sesshoumaru's face and giggled softly as she saw his eye's glaze over, then bit down on his throat once again.

....~*~....

Meanwhile, back in present day Japan...

Mrs. Higurashi was setting the table for three. Her father, her son Sota, and herself. Sighing softly she wished she was setting a fourth place as well. She didn't completely understand why Kagome had to keep going back through the well with that strange boy Inuyasha, but she kept reminding herself that she could trust Kagome. It was hard, and getting harder to not feel afraid whenever she woke up to find Kagome's room empty, knowing that she had left to battle youkai and other creatures right out of ancient times with people she had only ever heard about from her daughter, but she tried her best to remain positive and supportive of what her daughter was doing.

'Kagome's doing what she has to do and she has all her friends from the past to help protect her so I have no reason to worry.' She thought to herself, placing down the last plate.

Thinking back she remembered every time Kagome had come home with cuts and bruises all over her body, or when she told her about some of the 'adventures' she had had and she couldn't help but shudder and think 'What if?'. What if Kagome was seriously hurt and needed proper medical attention... what if she had become lost or been kidnapped by some horrible beast... what if... what if...

Sitting down on one of the chairs she placed her trembling hands on her lap trying hard to still them and took several deep breaths to stall the tears that threatened to cascade from her eyes.

"Okaasan, are you okay?" Mrs. Higurashi looked down to see Sota kneeling by her feet cuddling their cat Buyo and looking up at her with eyes that could melt her heart.

"Yes Sota, I'm fine." She smiled tremulously and picked up her little boy and placed him on her lap, Buyo and all. "I was just wondering when a certain someone was going to come and get his dinner." She added, putting on a brave face for Sota. She could cry later, when she was alone.

"Grampa's out in the mini-shrine trying to bring Kagome back." Sota answered in all seriousness, rubbing his cheek along Buyo's fur, not thinking that perhaps his mother might have been referring to him and not her father.

"Well then we'll just have to go and get him or his dinner will get cold." She said, standing up and gently sliding Sota to the ground.

"Okay." Sota chirped happily and taking his mother's hand they both started out to the mini-shrine.

Opening the door Mrs. Higurashi blinked suddenly, seeing a group of shadows flow across the yard before her and head towards the bone-eaters well.

'What on earth?' She questioned herself, frowning.

"Come on Okaasan." She looked down to see Sota tugging gently on her arm and smiled down at him.

"I'm coming Sota." She said and shook away the fear that had settled in her heart upon seeing those shadows. 'After all the worrying I've been doing I'm not surprised that my imagination is playing tricks on me.' 

Wandering across the yard the two came to the mini-shrine and stepped inside.

"Grampa! Tea's ready!" Sota shouted, perhaps thinking that the elder man's hearing had gone and he needed to shout to be heard, or perhaps he just being hyperactive as he skipped down the stairs.

Mrs. Higurashi smiled gently at her son. 'I have two such beautiful, intelligent children and Kagome is probably as safe as if she were here.' She thought, taking the first step down the stairs when suddenly the door slammed shut behind her and she was pushed head-first down the stairs into the dark.

....~*~....

"Ooh... *hic* ... tasty." Nathania giggled, dropping Sesshoumaru to the ground with a thud and swayed in time with the rest of the world.

"'Kay... I told 'gome... Ka-gome, that I'd meet her... umm... " Nathania frowned in thought, lifting her hand up to rub her chin and pursing her lips in the classic 'hard thinker' pose.

"Hey!" She suddenly cried then jumped in fright at the sound of her own voice causing her to trip over Sesshoumaru's prone body and sprawl out on the ground next to him and start giggling hysterically.

"I've got skin!" She laughed out loud, rolling over onto her back and stretching her hands up towards the night sky so that she could admire her arms and hands.

"Not a burn, not a blemish." She murmured, still grinning like mad. Sitting up suddenly she glanced over to Sesshoumaru and frowned.

"Hey Mr. Fluffy-thing. On my fine new skin, you," she illustrated who she ment by poking the youkai in the ribs, "are s'posed to compliment me." Again to illustrate the point she indicated herself by placing her hand delicately on her chest.

"Oh yeah, you can't do that can you. Stupid Nathania for forgetting that she killed you. If I ever see her again I'll slap her silly for doing such a nasty thing to you." She said seriously, shaking her finger at him in a chastising manner. Then she couldn't help herself and broke down into giggles.

"Ha ha ha! Wasn't that funny Mr. Fluffy-thing?" She asked the demon, fully expecting him to answer her. But he didn't.

"I said, 'Wasn't... that... funny?'" she repeated carefully, as if she was talking to an old man near deaf.

She frowned when he didn't answer, pushing a length of her golden hair behind her shoulder.

Getting onto her hands and knees she crawled over to Sesshoumaru until she could look at his delicate face, pale from extreme blood lose.

Breathing in deep, Nathania let loose.

"I SAID... WASN'T THAT FUNNY?"

No response.

"Damn you, you're supposed to find it funny." she whispered, her breathing becoming ragged as she tried not to cry, leaning back on her haunches, her mood swinging. Slowly, a single blood tear traced it's way down her cheek.

"Colvin and the dark man take you." she said suddenly, standing up and angrily rubbing the tear away with the palm of her hand. Straightening her shoulders she sneered down at Sesshoumaru's body, lifted her leg back then sent a sharp kick into his ribs. "Bite me, I'm going to find Kagome." She spat out at him. Kicking him in the ribs again for good measure, she then leapt to the air, flying away fast, sobbing silently.

Laying on the ground, Sesshoumaru groaned.

....~*~....

Kagome, Shippou, Miroku and Inuyasha were all sitting around a small camp fire discussing possible rumours of the Shikon shards when the half demon's sensitive ears first picked up the distant sound. Ears twitching slightly he frowned and turned to look over his shoulder in the direction that the noise was coming from.

"What is it Inuyasha?" On the other side of the fire Kagome stood up, holding Shippou in her arms.

"Something's coming... " He said, standing up and placing his hand on the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, scanning the horizon for whatever had set his senses off.

"Perhaps it could be the village head coming to apologise to us." Miroku put in, getting up from his place on the ground to join Inuyasha, hoping the half-youkai wouldn't do anything stupid if it was the village head.

"Village heads don't fly idiot." Inuyasha barked at him.

"They don't apologise either after some stupid dog demon's jusMMPH!" Kagome smiled and sweated a bit at Inuyasha who had jerked around to glare at her and Shippou, the little kitsune's mouth still covered with her hand.

Growling to himself he turned back.

"What is that sound? A death chant?" Miroku frowned, his relaxed posture disappearing as his mortal ears picked up what had first attracted Inuyasha's attention.

Kagome listened hard to try and pick out what bits of the song ment as it carried to her on the breeze.

"It's horrible." Shippou shuddered, pressing his little hands against his ears to block out the sound.

Kagome had to agree. The singers voice was always just slightly off key making the chant hard to listen to, as if something was vocally scratching their fingernails across a chalkboard.

Suddenly the chanting stopped.

The little group exchanged curious glances and Kagome stepped in closer to Inuyasha and Miroku. 'I have a very bad feeling about this.' she shivered.

In the silence the sharp sound of metal against scabbard seemed to echo oddly around them as Inuyasha pulled the Tetsusaiga out, transformed and ready to slice.

As suddenly as it had stopped the chanting started again, startlingly loud and straight above their heads.

_"The hills are alive... with the sound of elephants."_

Kagome frowned, that sounded like English, that sounded like... "Nathania!"

"Hi Kagome!! ... Um... why are you all upside down?"

Craning her neck upwards Kagome saw a very drunk Nathania dangling in mid-air, head down and eyeing them all.

"Okay, I kinda recognise Nasty-san," Inuyasha snorted and re-sheathed the Tetsusaiga. "I can see you've got Shippou, Kagome... but, hey... I haven't seen you before!" Nathania twisted around from where she was floating and moved her legs as if she was walking, (upside down) until she somehow reached Miroku. "Hi newbie! I'm Nathania. I'm a vampire. I'm... holy crap! I'm upside down!"

Miroku, who hadn't been told anything about any vampires, let alone ones called Nathania who went around floating upside down, raised an eyebrow and gave Kagome a confused look.

"Kagome-sama?"

"Oi! Don't call Kagome an elephant, it's rude!" Nathania snapped, breaking out of her shock and swatting at the poor houshi who quickly took refuge behind Kagome. Unable to connect a hit and unwilling to take a swipe at Miroku if she might get Kagome, Nathania burst into tears.

"Waah!! You're all so rude and I c-can't get d-down!!!" she wailed.

Inuyasha , deciding that he had had enough of this idiocy, stomped over to Kagome and glared at her.

"What?" Kagome asked, still keeping an eye on Nathania who had stopped wailing and was now desperately trying to stifle some giggles.

"She's you're 'friend' bitch, do something about her.

"Don't be so impolite to Kagome-sama Inuyasha." Miroku said, appearing from behind Kagome and whacking the half demon on the head with his staff.

Inuyasha felt a vein pop and growled at the priest.

Kagome on the other hand was still watching Nathania who had somehow managed to float up behind Inuyasha undetected.

"Nathania... ?" Kagome started to ask but was silently shushed by the floating girl.

Carefully, so as not to distract the arguing pair, Nathania reached out one long finger and then flicked Inuyasha's ear.

"Yipe!" Inuyasha jumped around in surprise and then growled something foul under his breath when he saw Nathania dangling behind him.

Nathania, Kagome and Shippou on the other hand thought it was absolutely hilarious and all broke out into giggles and laughter making Inuyasha's temper boil.

"Shut-up bitch!" Inuyasha snarled and took a half-hearted swipe at Nathania which the girl bobbed away from still smiling broadly. Turning around he glared malevolently at Kagome and Shippou, then at Miroku as well who tried to cover up his smirk with a cough.

Still floating upside down in the air, Nathania started to turn very green.

"Oooh... I don't feel so good... " she mumbled, putting her hands to her stomach, then passed out and since she was no longer conscious she also fell from the air, landing with a thump on the ground.

Kagome walked quickly over to where her friend had fallen and knelt down next to her, gently tugging her until she lay right side up.

"She's normal again." Kagome said out loud, studying Nathania's features.

"Normal?" Miroku asked, not quite sure that he would have referred to a flying person as 'normal'.

"Yeah, she's not a shrivelled up old corpse anymore. Wonder how many humans she had to kill to get this way?" Inuyasha said in a cold voice, not asking to get the answer for himself, but more for Kagome to hear the answer. That Nathania was a Western demon who killed to survive.

"Huh?" Miroku was thoroughly confused. Who was this Nathania and what kind of a relationship did she have with his new travelling companions?

"I wonder how come she was drunk?" was all Shippou asked, getting down from Kagome's lap so that he could look at Nathania, gently prodding her arm. Inuyasha snorted.

"Feh, I say we just take her Shikon shard and leave... " Inuyasha stopped mid-sentence in shock as he caught a familiar scent.

On the ground Kagome stared up at him, concern on her face.

"Inuyasha... ?" Miroku asked, placing his hand on the youkai's shoulder only to have it shaken off.

"She smells of Sesshoumaru." he said, swallowing hard.

"What!" Kagome looked down at Nathania with large eyes.

All Nathania did was smile in her sleep.

....~*~....

Meanwhile, elsewhere... 

Somewhere in the middle of a very large forest, Sesshoumaru woke up with a very raw throat and a very real anger...

**To Be Continued...**

**Notes from Hoowee:**  
_Iapologise now for the funny sounding Jaken. I don't know, he's always sounded just a wee bit Irish to me in the Viz translation and I just couldn't pass it up.  
Just with the Sesshoumaru thing, yes I do believe that he could survive being Nathania's tea. I mean if Inuyasha can survive Sesshoumarus hand going straight through his spine and other internal organs when he's only a half-demon then Sesshoumaru should be able to survive having his throat ripped out.  
Ooh! Something very important was mentioned in passing in this chapter. (Hoowee the mysterious Darkelf.) It'll probably make more sense later but I just thought I'd point it out now._

**Quote:**It's not the dark that I'm afraid of, it's what I can't see that could be in the dark that I fear. - _"?"._


	5. Never Annoy a Demon on the First Date (P...

**VAMPYRE**   
**Chapter Five: Never Annoy a Demon on the First Date (Part A)**

**Author: **Hoowee  
**E-mail:** hoowee_darkelf@yahoo.com  
**Warnings:** Gothic horror, Blood and Strong Language.

**Disclaimer: **_Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me.   
The original character of Nathania does belong to me.  
No profit is being made from this fanfiction, kindly do not sue._

....~*~....

"*Groan*"

Inu Yasha looked over to where Kagome was sitting next to the still unconscious Nathania and frowned, not at all happy about how close she was to an unknown danger.

All the while that Nathania had been gone he'd been looking over his shoulder, wondering when the vampire would turn up again and if his innate hate for her had been tempered in the time that she'd been away feasting. But it hadn't. Just as soon as she had shown her face again that rage had come back, bubbling through his veins, heating his blood until he felt sure that his next movement would be to reach over to tear out her heart with his bare hand.

Clenching it into a fist he looked down and forced himself to relax his grip with a sigh. Maybe he felt like doing that but he knew that unless Nathania gave him a valid reason he never would... perhaps he had gone soft from being around Kagome so much... he didn't know and what was worse, he was starting to care. Stretching his fingers out he studied his hand and wrist, noting the scaring that Nathania had put there when she had grabbed him with the hell fire had disappeared. Thanks to his youkai blood it had healed faster then any mortal could possibly hope.

In his minds eye he could still see the torment the hell fire had wreaked upon the vampire's body, eating away at her flesh until she had become not much more then a walking skeleton of melted flesh, and yet when she had grabbed at his wrist he had felt nothing but a faint coolness where the flames had laced around his hand. He looked over to where she lay again, taking in the newly grown pink skin, the muscles that were slightly defined underneath it and the long gold-white hair that had spread out beneath her head like a angels' halo and shuddered. She was healed, totally healed, and to do that... Nathania's way of healing, by drinking the blood of other creatures... disgust rose in his throat and lodged itself there, bringing with it a vile taste. She was no angel. She was a demon. The thought brought a twisted smile to his lips. 'Yes, she's a demon. And isn't that what you want to become so badly?'

"Inu Yasha?"

"Huh?"

The half youkai turned his attention back to the houshi, surprised at himself for letting his thoughts wander like that in the middle of a conversation.

Miroku sighed. He had a funny feeling that Inu Yasha wasn't going to be able to help him much in the way of information about the strange girl that had so suddenly dropped into the lives of the group.

"Perhaps you could.... " Miroku stopped talking as he noticed that Inu Yasha had drifted off in thought again, a frown creasing his forehead.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Miroku gave up on questioning Inu Yasha and walked over to Kagome, gently placing his hand on her shoulder in comfort. 

"How is she?" He asked, voice low in concern in concern.

Kagome looked up from the blonde girl she was caring for, her face a picture of sadness. Under her cool hand she felt Nathania's features twist into a silent scream again and mumble something in English. 'Col... something.' Kagome thought, trying to do justice to all those English lessons she had taken and pick out the strange syllables of the foreign language.

Frowning suddenly she swatted the priests wandering hand away and glared at him.

Miroku stared back at her, eyes wide, the picture of pure innocence.

Kagome rolled her eyes and shifted slightly to put a little more distance between them.

"She's just the same as she was an hour ago when she passed out. Unconscious and dreaming some very bad dreams." she answered, keeping a sharp watch on where Miroku's hands were placed.

The Houshi nodded his head sagely and sat down cross-legged on the earth opposite Kagome. Looking at her from across the gaijin's body he noted the weariness in her face. 'This strange girls appearance has certainly wrought a change upon our little group.' he mused softly to himself.

"...hot... " The soft whimper caught both Kagome's and Miroku's attention. Looking down at her lap to where Shippou had gone to sleep Kagome carefully brushed some of his hair away from his eyes. Out of all of them Shippou seemed to be taking the vampire's sudden reappearance the worst, often since he had fallen asleep dreaming of the morning when Nathania had burst into flames.

"Ssshhh." she soothed gently waking the little kitsune up and breaking the nightmares hold over him. 'Now if only I could wake Nathania so easily.' she thought, smiling slightly as Shippou cutely rubbed at his eyes blearily then settled back down to watch the gaijin for signs of movement.

Behind them the campfire flared and then died down into glowing coals, briefly illuminating Inu Yasha as he stood there, arms crossed and head bent slightly downwards. Speaking slowly he voiced some of the thoughts that had been plaguing him.

"When that wench first turned up the Tetsusaiga didn't work, and she damn well knew it too, but this time when she appeared it did transform. Why the hell is that? Plus she's now got Sesshoumaru's fuckin' stench not just on her body but inside it as well. Where the hell has she been?" Looking up he stared directly at Kagome, causing her to look away, unsure how to answer any of the questions he had posed, but scared that she might actually have the answer to at least one of them.

"Inu Yasha?" She asked quietly, her voice trembling slightly.

"Hmm?" The half demon looked over to where Kagome sat her face turned away from him and for a second concern for her flashed over his face, only to be replaced with his usual mask of arrogant indifference. "What?" He asked, arms still folded across his chest.

"I think... maybe... well, Nathania's not a youkai is she... not technically I guess... and she said that she was once a human... that she 'became' a vampire. Maybe the human part of her isn't all dead... maybe that's why the Tetsusaiga didn't work." Kagome stopped, seeing the look on Inu Yasha's face and swallowed.

"But if that's the case Kagome-sama, then why did it transform this time." Miroku to the side of her mused, beginning to put the pieces of information he had overheard together.

Kagome sighed. "I don't know." It seemed lately, that where Nathania was concerned she only ever had part of the answer, if it was an answer at all. All she knew about vampires had come from television and teen-thriller novels, and she had no way of discerning fact from fiction. But looking over the little group she had to admit she knew more then anyone else, except of course Nathania, and the gaijin, although forthcoming at the beginning of her story, had ended it rather abruptly just before she explained anything about the actual act of becoming a vampire leaving it up to Kagome's imagination.

"Didn't 'zactly expect you to." Nathania croaked, startling everybody out of their deep thoughts as she slowly sat up, squinting slightly and rubbing her temples with her fingers. "Yuck. I feel sick."

Kagome gingerly put her hand around Nathania's back to support the vampire as she swayed slightly and almost fell back down onto the ground. 

"Careful Nathania-san." Miroku warned her, adding his strength to Kagome's in trying to keep the girl upright. "You would not want to over exert yourself so soon after collapsing as you did."

Nathania closed her eyes and groaned weakly, leaning back gratefully against the two arms that supported her, her own strength still not fully returned to her. Feeling something tugging at her arm she looked down to see Shippou holding onto her hand as if he was afraid she'd burn or fade or fly away and offered him her special 'no teeth' smile. Shippou smiled back tremulously but his grip on her hand didn't loosen very much. Looking up to Kagome she nodded, hoping that it would convey her thanks for her help and then turned her head to Miroku smiling her thanks to him as well, then frowned as she realised she had no idea who she was smiling at, who was smiling back at her... who's hand was slowly edging around her ribcage towards her...

"If you're a pervert I'll bite you." She tried to growl but couldn't, her throat feeling strangely rough, as though it had been burnt with acid.

Miroku grinned sickly and drew his hand back to its' former position of helpfulness. He didn't know much about western 'vampires', only what he'd been able to pick up from Kagome and Inuyasha's conversation, and he wasn't about to put his lack of knowledge to the test by unnecessarily provoking one, but he could work on knocking her defences down with his polite charm later. Seeing her still favouring him with an angry gaze he quietly drew in a deep breath and thought. 'Much later.'

"My name is Miroku, Nathania-san. I am a Buddhist priest and am accompanying Kagome-sama and Inuyasha upon their quest."

"Feh." Nathania turned her head slightly to look past Miroku and saw Inuyasha glaring at the houshi.

"I take it you're not pleased with this turn of events Nasty-san?" She asked him.

Miroku blinked slightly. "Nasty-san?" he mouthed to Kagome, getting a shrug in response, while down on the ground Shippou giggled. 'Hmm... just have to file that one away for later use.' he thought to himself measuring Inuyasha's response by way of just when he should use it.

Inuyasha growled low in his throat as he stomped over from the dying embers of the fire to sit in front of Nathania and death glare her, eliciting a smirk from the gaijin. Seeing this he growled again. "What the fuck's so funny?"

Nathania's little smirk became a bigger smirk. "Just happy that someone around here can still growl properly. Thanks for cheering me up Nasty-san!"

Kagome drew in a breath as she saw Inuyasha tense up. "We were just wondering where you've been for the past week or so Nathania." she said suddenly, trying to distract Inuyasha from his usual 'Nathania's-around' bad mood.

"Really?" Nathania's eyes went large and sparkly.

"Uh-huh." Kagome nodded.

"Wow... I thought you were talking about some fang thingie transforming and me still being part human... my Japanese must be really deteriorating if I get things that badly mangled." she giggled.

Kagome concentrated on not letting the surprise show on her face. 'Just how long was Nathania awake and listening in on our conversation?' she thought in confusion. She had been so sure that the vampire had been asleep for the whole time.

Suddenly Nathania drew in a ragged breath as pure pain slammed into her body like shrapnel from an explosion, causing her to pitch forward almost hitting the ground but Inuyasha caught her and pushed her back by her shoulders so that she was sitting properly again. She almost laughed. Had she seen a flash of concern on Nasty-san's face? Now that would be funny. Good grief, he was even helping Kagome and Miroku steady her. Inside her head a myriad of darkened colours were swarming in a surprising manner, tangling and writhing, pulsing through her brain, her very body, and with every pulse a staggering spike of agony drove through her veins until she felt that she was on the verge of screaming. Gathering herself together she pushed away from Inuyasha and the others, biting down on her tongue as another pulse swept through her.

Shippou yelped and jumped back onto Kagome's shoulder as Nathania tore her hand away from his grasp. "Kagome, what's happening to Nathania?" he asked, worry seeping into his voice.

She couldn't reply because she was asking herself that exact same question and drawing a blank.

The pulses were weaving together, drawing sustenance off of each breath Nathania took and reaching further through her body with their coloured claws. Panting harshly she tried to force the pain away, mentally willing it to seep out of her pores and blow away on the cold night breeze. Standing up she staggered back from the group and squeezed her eyes shut. Her entire body felt strange. If she hadn't been on fire before and known what it actually felt like she would have said that she was burning up, or that her insides where on fire. But this pain was different, it clawed and teared through her veins like a rabid dog... or a dog demon.

Something inside her mind clicked with that thought.

Prying open her eyes looked closely at Inuyasha noting the similarities and the differences between him and the other white haired demon she had faced and killed. The white hair, the claws, the eyes... maybe something about the face... if her memory served her correctly... and the way that it was blurred she couldn't be sure that it was... the two demons could almost have been brothers. 'Ooh... hope not or Nasty-san's going to kill me.' her thoughts slurred. 'But you were right Colvin, youkai blood would have destroyed me as a fledgling.' A coloured claw of pain distracted her from her wandering thoughts as it brushed against her heart, then, as if it had found what it had been searching for, drew back and struck at the blood sack, piercing it through to it's core.

Every cell inside her screamed making up for the shout of pain she refused to let past her lips, and then she felt something warm and thick rush up her throat. Dropping to her hands and knees she tried to choke the fluid back but failed. Opening her mouth she vomited blood everywhere.

"AAHHHH!!!" Shrieked Kagome, dancing back away from the crimson tide that fountained from between Nathania's lips.

Holding on tightly to her shoulder Shippou squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to look at what was happening and half wished that he could release his grip on Kagome so that he could block his ears to the sounds of the gaijin violently emptying her stomach.

Inuyasha wrinkled his nose, bringing his sleeve up to cover it and hopefully block out most of the stench of the blood Nathania had vomited up and carefully positioned himself in front of Kagome. 'Nothing about this vampire smells right...' he thought. '... and that blood she's spewed doesn't smell right either. Too much of it smells old and dead... and human' picking up a slight rustle of movement from behind him he checked over his shoulder to see the houshi relaxing his grip on his staff.

"Baka! What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he snarled as Miroku picked his way past him towards where Nathania lay, apparently passed out on the red soaked earth.

"I'm going to help her."

Behind him Kagome swallowed hard then tried to step around the half demon so that she could help too but she found herself being stopped by Inuyasha's hand.

"Inuyasha! What's your problem? Nathania's in a really bad way, we've got to help her!" She fumed staring up at him. What she saw on his face surprised her. 'Is that concern I see? Could it possibly be that Inuyasha is worried about us?'

"Just don't go near her yet." Inuyasha was incredibly worried with dozens of unanswered questions raging through his head. 'Is she still unconscious or only faking like before? What just happened to her? Does her having Sesshoumaru's stench all over her have anything to do with it? If I have to protect Kagome and the others will the Tetsusaiga work?' Inu Yasha shook his head and growled. He could puzzle it all out later when he had time, right now he didn't and he didn't like the way that vampire smelled.

"Miroku!! Get away from her! NOW!!" Inuyasha yelled, turning towards the houshi his hand going to the Tetsusaiga's hilt.

Miroku looked up from where he had gently moved the still unconscious Nathania onto her side and out of the red vomit she had fallen in and frowned in confusion. "What?"

"The blood she spewed up was old and human but she's still got Sesshoumaru's stink cursing through her!!"

Miroku frowned harder but reluctantly started to move away from where the vampire lay.

Stepping backward slowly he looked down into the face of the gaijin and noted with some surprise that her golden eyes were open. 'Golden? Weren't they ice-blue before?' he puzzled, then things started to click into place. "Shit." he muttered to himself, quickening his backward pace so that he could put some fighting distance between himself and the vampire.

"Miroku! What's going on?!" Kagome yelled in concern over Inu Yasha's shoulder.

Nathania moved fast, faster then any of the small group expected, especially Miroku.

"Wha- URK!!" He started to say, but his question was painfully cut short by Nathania as she sunk her fangs deep into Miroku's neck.

....~*~.... 

Meanwhile, back in present day Japan...

Mr Nakamura huddled in the corner of the mini-shrine, his back pressing hard into the wooden walls, watching the proceedings with terror in his eyes. 'I'm just a bloody innocent bystander... things like this don't happen to me...' he half whimpered into his large, hairy hands, trying to stifle the sounds issuing from his throat. Why these monsters had singled him out was beyond him. Ever since that first damn night they had turned up and tortured him about somebody called 'Nathania' they'd kept him close. Close enough to hit, close enough to hurt, close enough to kill if he didn't tell them about Nathania. How the hell was he supposed to know the chick? He'd bloody well told them that too, over and over again he'd said that he didn't know nobody by the name of Nathania. He'd told them as calmly as he could when they'd bullied their way into his house and threatened him with sharp wooden stakes. He's yelled it at them as the had held him down with inhuman might and carved long swirling patterns into his chest with knives. He'd screamed it as they had peeled the skin off of one of his arms exposing the muscle underneath to air. He'd pleaded for them to believe him as they'd pressed spikes ever so slowly through the bottom of his feet. But they didn't listen, or they didn't care to interrupt their fun for the truth.

'I told them... I told them... I TOLD THEM!!' his mind sobbed frantically, trying to make sense of this sudden horror that had become his life. The pain that never quite stopped. Even now his arm throbbed where they had replace the peeled skin like a long leather glove and he doubted he could hobble more then a few steps. When had he last seen the sun? How long had he been their captive? A day? A week? A month? The hours and minutes had all merged into one long line of fear long ago. When would they want to know about Nathania again? Shudders of despair passed through his body violently at the thought and a wet stain spread across the front of his trousers as his bowels proved too weak, again. Oh god, he couldn't go through anymore... he couldn't...

"I don't want to die... I don't want to bloody die... " he cried, tears streaming down his blood encrusted face.

"It'll be alright." a quiet voice confided in him. Mr Nakamura swallowed and looked over his shoulder to see the young boy that had so innocently skipped into the grasp of the group and saw the fire of hope burning in his eyes. Lying next to the boy on the floor was his mother, an ugly bruise darkening on her temple from where she had hit the old well that sat in the centre of the shrine that had become their prison. His thoughts danced in a manic way from his fears to wonder if the woman was suffering from concussion. She had yet to wake up and her face seemed pale and bloodless in the little light that dared to creep inside the shrine through the window. He started to giggle through his tears. 'Bloody hell. I don't even know what bloody concussion is 'cept you get it when you hit your head.'

"Sir?" the boy asked with a tremble in his voice.

Mr Nakamura looked over to him to see that he had snuggled further in with his unconscious mother and was eyeing him strangely.

'Geez, I've frightened the tyke. He's not bloody scared of those six monster but I can scare him.' He thought in wonder. Not that he could blame him. Seeing a grown man laugh and cry at the same time couldn't be very comforting. "How come you think it's gonna be alright kid?"

Sota hunched down and took a secretive look around trying not to be too obvious about making sure the girls where all out of earshot in such a way that it was immediately noticeable. "Cause my sister's got a friend who could beat all these girls with just his little finger." He confided in a stage whisper, the light of hero worship glowing in his eyes. All around the room the ears of the six girls seemed to grow as they nonchalantly ignored the conversing two.

"So how's that gonna help us kid? Do they bloody know where you are?"

Sota grinned. "They don't have to." he said softly, his eyes quickly looking over to the old well that featured in the middle of the mini-shrine. "So you don't have to worry cause it's going to be alright."

Mr Nakamura shook his head, his slowly drying tears flying from his cheeks to splatter on the floor. The boy had almost taken him in there, with his little bit of hope. But if he thought some guy was just going to miraculously appear and save them it was a false hope. "No it won't be all right kid. We're all gonna bloody die." the end of his sentence came out in a strangled hush as he caught sight of one of the two Japanese girls of the group, the one who had taken his blood in her hands after she had carved up his chest with her knife and ran it through her hair, turn in his direction with an unholy gleam in her eyes. She started to walk towards the shivering shell of a man slowly, her hand flicking down to grasp the hilt of her knife, but stopped as another one of the group, a gaijin, spoke up.

"Oh just shut the 'bloody' hell up." the dark haired girl dressed in black leather and velvet groaned, tapping the end of a riding crop agitatedly against the side of the old well that she was leaning against. A heartbeat or two later she yawned loudly. "Arg, this waiting shits me... how do we know that Colvins' information was right? She could be in another country by now. YOW!!" She yelled as a blonde slapped her across the face. "Shit Dynn, what's your fucking problem?" she growled, rubbing her cheek where the girl's hand, Dynn's hand, had connected leaving a slight bruising behind.

A wraith thin brunette sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the stairs grinned at her companions discomfort then went back to carving her name into the last step. She knew how Dynn's leadership worked. If you weren't carrying out an order you were staying quiet and out of her way, and so far it had worked. 'Now if only Mel can get that through her head... ' she thought softly as she etched the last letter of her name into the wood and smiled at her small triumph over Dynn's iron leadership.

Back over at the wall Mr Nakamura shivered at how close he had come to more pain and prayed that the softly arguing blonde and Goth would keep the others attention away from their small group of captives for a long while. "We're going to need a bloody guardian angel to get out of this kid." He whispered out of the corner of his mouth towards Sota.

The boy shook his head slightly and whispered back. "No we don't. We need a demon."

**To Be Continued...**

**Notes from Hoowee:**  
_Mwa ha ha... the plot thickens... though into what I'm just not quite sure. Who's Colvin? Why's Nathania chowing down on Miroku? What's going to happen to Sota and co.? *Hoowee scratches head* Hmm... must think harder._

**Quote:** Someone had to be the first to break. - _"I Don't Know You Anymore" Savage Garden._


	6. Never Annoy a Demon on the First Date (P...

**VAMPYRE   
****Chapter Five: Never Annoy a Demon on the First Date (Part B)**

**Author: **Hoowee  
**E-mail: ** hoowee_darkelf@yahoo.com  
**Warnings:** Gothic horror, Blood and Strong Language.

**Disclaimer: **_Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, not me.   
The original characters of Nathania and Colvin do belong to me.  
No profit is being made from this fanfiction, kindly do not sue._

....~*~....

**Additional Warning:**_ Usually there is a little bit of swearing in my fics but at the moment it is getting worse with peoples attitudes. The more angry and annoyed they are, the more they swear. I hope this doesn't turn you off reading my fic, I just see it as character development._

....~*~....

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!!" Inuyasha shouted drawing the Tetsusaiga from its scabbard, pleased to see that it powered up to full fang size.

Nathania twisted around dragging the struggling Miroku with her, her mouth still sucking greedily at the puncture wound she had made at his throat as she held him tightly against her body.

'Crap she's strong.' Miroku thought as he tried to pull away from her but only succeeded in helping her tear more of the skin away from his throat. Feeling some of his own blood spurt from the wound Nathania had created he started to sweat and stopped struggling, trying to keep the deep gash from becoming any deeper. 'No sense in tearing my own throat out.'

Kagome just stared in shock at the scene in front of her, an eeping Shippou hiding beneath her hair. How had this happened? When had Nathania become one of the bad guys? Shaking her head to clear her thoughts she felt an anger build up inside her along with a sense of confused betrayal. "Nathania stop!! Why are you doing this!?" she shouted over to the vampire, hot tears welling up in her eyes. 'How could she do this to us? She said we were friends. We WERE friends!' her thoughts clamoured for answers.

Nathania didn't respond, her eyes remaining on the seething dog-demon who stood before her.

'Shit. I can't use the Tetsusaiga because the fucking houshi's in the way.' the youkai fumed. Snarling at the girl, Inuyasha watched with the eyes of a predator, waiting for her to slip up and provide him with a chance to use his fathers' fang. Behind him he could smell Kagome's anger at Nathania's betrayal and it tore at his heart that she was hurting so bad. But in a way he felt glad. Finally his unnatural hate of the gaijin had been verified. She was evil, therefore he had been right to hate her. "Let him go bitch!"

Miroku groggily lifted his head trying to pinpoint were the shout had come from. Everything was becoming heavy, from his thoughts to his body, and his eyes were having trouble focusing. Was that Inuyasha over there? He couldn't quite tell if the smudge of white in his vision was the half demon or just his eyes giving out.

Kagome caught her breath. Miroku looked like he couldn't last much longer. Why hadn't he used the air rip? 

Looking around for something that could help she spotted the groups packs some few steps from where she stood, her bow and arrows laying next to them. Swallowing hard she chanced another look at the stand off occurring between the two demons and then made up her mind. Nathania might have proclaimed to have been her friend, but obviously something had changed that during her week long hiatus and no matter what the vampires reasons, Kagome couldn't let her kill one of her Miroku.

Scrambling suddenly over to the packs, Kagome stretched out with her hands, trying to grab her bow as quickly as she could.

Shippou eeped loudly as he lost his grip on Kagome and fell from her shoulder onto the ground with a thud.

"Stay there Shippou." Kagome told him absently, her mind already back to the fight against Nathania.

"But Kagome... " Shippou protested. Too late he noticed that Kagome had already run of back to where Inuyasha was. "You're not gonna leave me out of this." Shippou scowled, leaping after her.

Running quickly, Kagome circled the vampire to the left until she was at a right angle to Inuyasha. Taking in a deep breath she knocked an arrow in her bow and brought it up to point at Nathania and shouted, "Let Miroku-sama go vampire!"

Inuyasha tensed up hearing the girls' threat. 'Kagome you idiot, what the hell do you think you're doing? You're not THAT good with a bow. You'll skewer them both.'

Flicking her line of sight from Inuyasha, Nathania eyed Kagome warily but kept the houshi positioned between herself and the half-demon, still seeing him as the main threat.

"From this angle I can hit you without hurting Miroku-sama, vampire!" Kagome's hands trembled slightly and she could feel sweat bead up on her brow. 'Come on vampire, turn towards me.' she thought, breathing in short gasps. 'Please, just turn towards me and give Inuyasha his opening.'

Nathania lifted her red-stained mouth from Miroku's neck and seemed to waver between Kagome and Inuyasha, not quite sure who was the most dangerous. A seriously peeved half-youkai or an angry, betrayed friend.

Miroku, almost unconscious now from blood lose, felt the iron bands that had kept him held tight loosen slightly with Nathania's indecision and bit down hard on his lip so that the pain would keep him awake. Whenever his chance came, he had to be awake and ready for it, he just had to be.

"AAHHHH!!" Nathania suddenly shrieked as something bit into her calf muscle.

'Oh my god... ' Kagome's thoughts screeched to a halt upon seeing the small kitsune firmly attached to Nathania's leg. 'Shippou-chan, you'll get yourself killed. Unconsciously she stepped forward, her bow dipping slightly.

Turning slightly the vampire reached down with one hand, tightening her grip on Miroku with the other, and caught Shippou by the head and pulled.

'Come on you dog-breathed jerk, here's your opening.' Shippou thought, squeezing his eyes shut in pain as he felt Nathania's grip on his head tighten like a winch.

"Gotcha you fucking vampire." Inuyasha smiled evilly and shifted the Tetsusaiga's grip, then dashed across the open ground between him and the vampire and brought the fang down across her back, a sudden spray of blood spurting across his face.

"Eep!" Shippou yelped as he was jolted into finally letting go of his grip on Nathania's lower leg and landed face first in the dirt at her feet.

"Yeah? Well fuck you arsehole!" Nathania snarled, ignoring the blood dripping from her back onto the ground and turning around scowl at Inuyasha.

Miroku swallowed. The vampire was as about as distracted as she was going to get. If he wanted to get free it was now or never. Twisting suddenly in Nathania's slackening grip, he managed to free one of his arms and focusing hard, he swung it round to land a punch straight against the side of the vampire's head, surprising her enough that she lost her hold on him entirely.

Stumbling back away from her his hand caught on something at the side of her arm, but he was already off balance and the object slid from the vampire's arm with ease as he continued backward and then fell to the ground to be hidden in the grass and dirt, unnoticed be everyone else and forgotten by Miroku as he fell to the ground, finally blacking out.

Inuyasha grinned to see the houshi out of harms way. Finally he could get in close and do some damage without repercussions.

Watching Nathania turn away from the priest and give a wide eyed glare in his direction he smiled arrogantly back at her, feeling that strange bubbling anger lend his body added strength. "You're dead bitch." and moving with incredible demon speed he swung the Tetsusaiga towards her mid-section, intent on cleaving her in two.

The move itself took only seconds to complete but somehow during all this Nathania had time to smirk and then with a speed comparable to Inuyasha's she vaulted over his head, landing facing Kagome.

Kagome blinked at suddenly being confronted by the girl and let loose a startled scream. "AAHHHH! Inuyasha!!"

"Kagome, calm down." Nathania frowned, reaching out to place a hand on the girls' upper arm only to have Kagome skitter backwards out of her reach.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Inuyasha yelled, seriously pissed that the vampire had come so close to his... to Kagome.

"Oh just fuck off." Nathania growled over her shoulder then eeped and ducked into a forward roll as the Tetsusaiga sailed through where her head had just been. Standing up she cursed and turned back to Kagome, ignoring the fact that Inuyasha was standing next to the girl, intent on protecting her, only to find that Kagome had finally remembered that she was holding her bow in her hands and had raised it so that the arrow was pointed directly at Nathania's heart.

Nathania raised her hands in protest. "Wo wo wo... I didn't kill the priest, I just had a little snack."

Kagome couldn't believe what she was hearing. "A little snack! A LITTLE SNACK!" Clenching her hands around the smooth wood of her bow Kagome trembled with held in anger. Gods how she wanted to hit her over the head with it. How could anyone be so callous?

"And you having gold eyes and the stench of Sesshoumaru in your blood would have nothing to do with this would it?" Inuyasha growled. He hated talking. Talking got you nowhere.

Nathania raised an eyebrow as a look of puzzlement crossed her face. "Sesshoumaru?" The vampire's golden eyes rolled back in her head as she thought.

Inuyasha growled low in his throat. Just what the hell was this demon playing at?

Suddenly Nathania snapped back to attention and slapped her palms together as the answer hit her.

"Ah! You mean Mr Fluffy-thing!"

"Mr... Fluffy-thing?" Inuyasha half choked on the name, a large sweatdrop running down the side of his face. Imagining anyone calling his older brother 'Mr Fluffy-thing' and getting away with it was... was... until this moment, unthinkable.

Nathania didn't seem to notice Inuyasha's expression. "Yeah. I came across this girlie haired youkai during the week that I was gone. I didn't ask for his name so I just dubbed him 'Mr Fluffy-thing' on account of this huge fluffy boa thingie he had over his shoulder." Nathania thought a bit more. "... Plus, I was slightly drunk at the time."

Inuyasha and Kagome exchanged surprised glances.

Nathania continued. "I was just soooo hungry and having him appear when he did was like having pizza delivered. So in all good tradition we fought and I managed to keep him off balance by making him sleepy. There was no way I could of won if I hadn't. Something which I DIDN'T do to you, Nasty-san." She added, pointing an accusing finger at Inuyasha. "I easily could have you know."

Inuyasha felt dazed. "You drank my brothers blood?"

"Absolutely ripped his throat out... wait a minute, your brother? Oh shit." Nathania's shoulders slumped with defeat. Mentally she was kicking herself and her stupid hunches. 'Great, you did kill Nasty-san's brother. Absolutely fucking wonderful Nathania.'

"Maybe it would be better if I returned to modern day Tokyo. I seem to find less trouble there." the vampire said softly, her head still bowed.

Kagome tightened her grip on her bow and steamed. "You kill people and then just say 'Oh well, I better go home'?!" She practically screeched, making Inuyasha wince and slightly flatten his sensitive ears. "I can't believe this. I can't believe that I trusted you enough to become your friend." tears of anger started to seep from the corners of Kagome's eyes, so she blinked them rapidly to clear her sight. "You make me sick, vampire. You make me feel like I've swallowed something disgusting and I can't quite vomit it up." She was shaking now, all her muscles tensed. Pulling back on the string she pulled the bow taunt and straightened her shoulders as she aimed.

"So now you're going to kill me?" Nathania asked as calmly as she could. But try as she might, she couldn't stop the underlying sadness from creeping into her words.

Inuyasha kept quiet. This was Kagome's moment, her decision. Somehow she had to decide for herself. And if she couldn't do what had to be done, he would.

Sitting next to Miroku, Shippou swallowed hard. It looked like Kagome was really going to kill Nathania. With that thought came a buzzing in the back of his skull. It wasn't supposed to end like this, he was sure of it. There was supposed to be more to the... story? Now where had that word come from? The little kitsune frowned at his inward thoughts.

Kagome ran her tongue across her lips trying to put some moisture back into them. Her fingers ached where they held the string back and she could feel sweat slicken her grip on the wood. Lowering her gaze from her one time friend and letting the tears finally flow free she whispered "I can't."

"Well I can." Inuyasha lifted the Tetsusaiga with every intention to slash it across the vampire's throat. 'Heh, let her feel what it was like to have her own throat torn out by someone's fang.'

"If you went back, what would you do?"

"What!?" The half demon spluttered in surprise. Surely Kagome couldn't be even considering letting the vampire go back to her time.

Nathania let the silence stretch for a while, then answered. "... I haven't been to Australia for a long time, or America either. There are people there that I need to talk to.

"... And Japan?"

Inuyasha started grinding his teeth in anger. She was. She was going to let this creature go back, the stupid girl. Growling he made ready to leap at her and slash out her insides, but Kagome seemed to second guess him and with a quick 'Sit!' his motion was stopped.

Neither of the two girls batted an eyelash.

"I only came because of a rumour. I have no more business here."

"The rumour's gone?" Kagome asked, head still lowered, her fringe hiding her eyes, so that she didn't have to see the vampire's face, so that she didn't have to see a stranger in a friends place.

Nathania nodded. "It's been dead for centuries, I was just making sure of it."

A cool night breeze swept across the ground tangling about their ankles the smell of spilled blood. Above them in the sky, the moon reached it's nightly crest and bathed the world below in shades of silver and shadow, giving a devilish hint to everyone's faces.

"Wait a minute, what about the Shikon shard she has." Inuyasha interrupted from the ground, the silence that had coiled around the group, unwilling to see Nathania get off scot-free.

"Oh no, Nasty-san. I still need that little shard, I'm not handing it over yet." The gaijin crossed her arms and sent the dog-demon an impassive stare.

Kagome lifted her eyes and sent an impassive stare of her own. "It's right above her heart Inuyasha." Her voice was cold, no emotion seeped into it.

Nathania's eyes widened in surprise. "K-kagome... ?" Her hand fluttered up to cover her chest, right above her heart.

Inuyasha smirked. Now this was more like it. Heaving himself of the ground he took a step forward, the blade of the fang deceptively lowered.

"And you'll hand it over to us as soon as we return through the well, won't you." Inuyasha stopped walking and looked over his shoulder at Kagome. There was no question in her voice.

Nathania's face twitched with the statement and her hand tightened it's grip above her heart. "Kagome... I need it." she said, her voice almost a plea for understanding.

"You want to go home, I want the Shikon shard."

Nathania screwed up her face in despair. "You know I could always go through the well by myself, that's how you do it isn't it... so I don't need you." She said softly, without conviction.

"Yes you do vampire."

Nathania flinched. It hurt that Kagome would no longer call her by her name, only 'vampire'. Closing her eyes and breathing in she dropped her hand back down to her side. "As soon as we arrive back in modern Japan I will hand my shard of the Shikon Jewel over to you. The promise sounded stilted, forced, until Nathania opened her eyes and smiled faintly. Cross my heart and hope to die."

Kagome shivered. Something about that sounded... prophetic.

"You'd make a very good vampire Shippou." Nathania semi joked, looking down and wincing slightly at the teeth marks the little kitsune had left in her leg.

Shippou ignored her and continued tending to the priest.

"Shippou-chan, it might be an idea to take him back to that village we last past through. After Inuyasha and I take the vampire through the well we'll meet you there." There's so much blood here... I don't know what that could attract. Can you do that?" Kagome asked the little kitsune, kneeling down next to him.

Shippou nodded, but remained silent causing Kagome to frown in concern. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Shippou, for all being a kitsune, was still a child. None of this could have been very easy for him.

Inuyasha growled something and hauled Kagome to her feet. "If we're gonna do this let's hurry up and get it over with."

Kagome nodded absently as she climbed onto his back, her thoughts still on Shippou. She'd have to do something to cheer him up when they got back.

"Try not to get lost bitch." Inuyasha called out over his shoulder to Nathania as he started flying towards the well.

"No we wouldn't want that to happen would we?" The vampire muttered sarcastically under her breath, flying after them.

Shippou looked over his shoulder at the departing group and stifled a shudder. Something was not right, but he had no idea what.

Looking back down at Miroku he noticed that the houshi's neck wound was already healing. This time the shudder managed to work it's way free. 'Popping' out some kitsune magic he started moving Miroku towards the village.

....~*~....

Sesshoumaru bounded through the forest, trailing his own scent mixed with another's through the night, feeling a strange sort of bubbling anger boiling through his veins and his neck throbbing from where it had barely healed. "Fucking bitch. I'll tear out your fucking throat, then pull your heart out through your neck and feed it to you.' Skidding to a halt he tested the air again, delicately raising his nose and sniffing slightly, trying to find the mixture of vampire blood. If anything, it was not something he had ever expected to do. To follow the scent of his blood when he knew that it was no longer contained and kept warm within his own body. In fact he could not remember a time when he had had to trail his own blood scent at all. The whole matter suddenly seemed rather perverse in that light.

A cloud shifted from the moons face allowing a stream of silver to pierce through the tree's canopy and surround the youkai as he stood in silence. Pale and beautiful almost to the point of pain, containing a grace that the cool nights breeze could never touch, Sesshoumaru made a picture of deadly elegance against the canvas of forest dark colours of night.

There, it went that way. His feet sped after the blood warmth on the air, his thoughts moving just as fast but taking a different path to those previous as he picked up the faintest scent of Jaken in the recipe that was the vampire's blood. 'Bitch even drained my servant.' the thought wasn't one of anger over how Jaken had been hurt but one of petulance that someone had dared to touch something that he thought of as his. His servant, his right to hurt and maim, not some fucking gaijin demon's. 'It'll take hours for the little toad to heal.'

Suddenly the wind shifted in it's river course through the trees, bringing with it new scents to mingle with the ones he had followed.

"What the... " A surprised 'o' formed on his lips as another delicious smell swept across his senses. "Inuyasha... " an almost smile curved at the corners of his mouth. "What have you gotten yourself into little brother?"

Slapping a branch out of the way he sped into the middle of a clearing soaked in blood and spun around noting the silence of the grave that seeped from the ground as the spilled blood seeped in. "Interesting."

He could taste the tang of betrayal in the air mixed with human sweat and fear so much that it was almost palpable. Anger and pain radiated through the spilt blood in a most delectable way.

Shifting slightly a glimmer of gold caught the interest of his eye. "Eh?"

Stepping carefully over the red earth, Sesshoumaru made his way over to the object, bored curiosity alive in his eyes.

Leaning down he picked the glittering object out from it's cushion in the sticky, wet grass and held it up under the moons light, inspecting its curves with a dull curiosity.

Strange how it seemed almost alive, a warmth all of it's own pleasantly soaking into his fingers as he held it.

"Hmph." Stuffing it away he checked the clearing once more, already sure that there was nothing more to be seen then when he had first entered the glade. His nose had told everything he needed to know within the first few seconds that he had stepped from beneath the trees shadowed embrace.

The demon gaijin had left with his accursed brother and he wasn't quite ready for the little bastard half-breed to see him again yet. Looking down to his empty sleeve he sneered. There was much to do and if that girl was with his brother when they next met he would kill them both, and if she wasn't... he could easily hunt her down again and kill her slowly at his leisure.

The thought brought a small smile to his lips as he stepped once again into the shadowed darklips as he stepped once again into the shadowed dark.

....~*~....

Kagome sniffled softly against Inuyasha's back as he flew through the forest towards the bone-eaters well. 'It's not fair. She seemed so nice but she, but she...' Kagome's thoughts trailed off as she saw Nathania tearing into Miroku's throat so she could drink his blood in her minds eye. 'It's just not fair!' The tears burned hot down her cheeks and she buried her face against the demons coat to try and hide the fact that she was upset from everyone.

Inuyasha felt uncomfortable with Kagome crying against his back, her tears soaking through his coat and undershirt to his skin staining him with her sadness. In fact he felt so horribly uncomfortable and unsure of himself that he reacted the only way he knew how, he insulted her. "Would you fucking stop using my coat as a nose rag."

Kagome snapped her head up to stare at Inuyasha, her tears drying in the shocked anger she felt at the demon, "Well excuse me!" Inuyasha snorted and continued his flight onwards, glad that the girl was no longer sobbing.

Kagome looked back to see Nathania keeping pace with them but deliberately staying a few feet behind the half-demon. A shudder worked it's way free of her and rattled through her body. 'She looks so...' She wanted to say normal, just as a comfort blanket so that she didn't have to think about what the Nathania really was. She just needed something to bring a little bit of normalcy to here life. 'Say something, fill in the silence.' she thought and then let the first thought in her head tumble out across her tongue. "Why were you... vomiting human blood?"

Nathania looked at her with wide, surprised eyes and Kagome grabbed onto Inuyasha just a bit tighter, mentally kicking herself for bringing up such a bad topic. Yet she couldn't help but feel curious about the answer and by the way that Inuyasha's ears were swivelling, she guessed that he was interested in what kind of explanation the girl would come up with.

The vampire pulled a face in the silence and then took a deep breath. "My body was just purging itself to make room for the new improved blood that Mr Fluffy-thing so nicely supplied." she replied to the question, running up from behind so that she was next to Inuyasha, her new golden eyes gleaming in the darkness. "The thing is, if my body kept only the youkai blood I would've started taking on more youkai characteristics and I didn't wan that. My bodies only human, it's the blood that makes me a vampire and the youkai blood would have eventually eaten my body away so I needed to dilute it again and quickly. Miroku was the only human around who I had not promised to bite."

"And if I had been the only human?" Kagome asked from Inuyasha's back, the words slightly muffled by the dog demons coat and the rushing wind.

Nathania's carefree expression saddened and she looked away from the angry girl, not wanting her to see the look of hunger that had come into her eyes. Reaching down inside herself she mercilessly squashed that hunger. There were so few people she cared about in the world that she was not about to let her vampire urges kill this one. At the same time she was not ready to lie either. "I had to feed on a human Kagome."

Kagome swallowed and nodded. "I see."

"No you probably don't." Nathania replied, shaking her head.

"Nice to see that you'll kill your 'friends' to save your own fucking life." Inuyasha growled under his breath but Nathania's ears caught the sentence anyway.

"I almost did... "

"Miroku-sama wasn't your friend! You barely knew him! He was only trying to help you!" Kagome shouted, gripping Inuyasha's coat in her hands, the tears that she thought she had cried out welling up in her eyes, blurring her vision so that she had to blink rapidly to see clearly again. In a smaller voice she repeated herself to reinforce the statement "He was only trying to help you."

A silence descended upon the group as they travelled along, no one feeling comfortable enough to speak as they pushed through the forest fauna at an incredible rate of speed.

Can you use the 'cutting wind' yet?"

Inuyasha looked over to the vampire like she had just sprouted another head. "The what?"

Nathania sighed. "I don't know how to say it in Japanese. Don't worry, it's not that important." She grinned at the joke only she got, receiving a growl from the half demon. "Yeesh, somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

Inuyasha felt a sweatdrop slide down the side of his face as the gaijin cracked herself up over her joke.

Kagome could barely believe it. Not that long ago the vampire had been locked in deadly battle against them both, yet here she was cracking jokes and acting like the girl that had gained Kagome's trust enough to become her friend in such a short period of time. It was almost like she had two personalities. One a morose demon, the other a silly gaijin joker and it almost made Kagome want to scream at her or just do anything to get that stupid smile off of her face. She was a blood-sucking vampire who killed people to survive, who had admitted to almost killing one of her close friends. It was wrong that she could smile, just so incredibly wrong.

Nathania grinned at Kagome, "What's up? You look like you've swallowed something you didn't like the taste of.

She probably meant it as another joke but... "I have." Kagome stared at the gaijin girl, knowing that she would understand what the look coupled with the words meant. Nathania blinked at the comment, hurt flashing in her eyes and the smile fading, but she continued to race along side them until they came to the bone eaters well all of a sudden, both demons skidding to a halt beside it.

"You know, I could get used to this youkai blood thing." Nathania said, sitting down on the edge, dangling her legs over the side of the well and looking back the way they had come. "It sure cuts down time. There'd be no way I could fly here even half as fast." 'Even if I'd just feed on a whole group of people before hand.' she added silently to herself.

"Feh." Inuyasha growled from behind her, Kagome sliding from his back to the ground, "Just move it bitch." He punctuated his words with a shove to Nathania's back, pushing the only half startled Vampire down the well.

"Inuyasha! What are you doing?!" Kagome wapped Inuyasha over the head. "There was no reason to do that!" Inuyasha snarled at her and received a snarl from Kagome in return. She had cut off her emotions to deal with the vampire during the fight, but now they where flooding back into her as if someone had turned on the tap of feelings once more and she just couldn't deal with Inuyasha's childish temper at the moment. If she wasn't careful she thought that her she just might hit him with the Tetsusaiga.

Inuyasha almost eeped at Kagome's reaction but managed to keep the surprise hidden from the girl. "I'm going with you." The words popped out of his mouth before he knew it.

"No you're not." Kagome told the half demon as she put one foot on the side of the well, making ready to jump down after the vampire.

Inuyasha looked quickly to the side for a second and then looked back at the girl, his golden eyes burning with intensity. "I don't trust her-" Kagome's heart began to swell at the thought that Inuyasha was trying to protect her, "-and you'll start doing something stupid if I leave it to you." Pop! There went that warm fuzzy feeling. "Why you dog-breathed jerk!" Kagome squealed in outrage as Inuyasha grabbed her about the waist and jumped into the well after the vampire.

Touching down at the dirt at the bottom of the well Kagome distinctly heard something go crunch under Inuyasha's foot. Apparently so did Nathania who had appeared next to them as they had landed. "Hmm... wonder what... !" Nathania's eyes widened and one of her hands drifted up to her head, brushing back along her hair looking for something. "Oh no. My sunglasses!" Inuyasha raised his foot and sure enough, underneath were the shattered remains of Nathania's sunnies. "Damn it. They must've fallen off when I came through. Oh this sucks."

Kagome wiggled out of Inuyasha's grasp and started climbing out of the well. 'The sooner this is over with the better,' was the one thought she managed to get out before a strong hand reached over the side of the well and hauled her out by her hair.

"Kya!"

Inuyasha looked up at her startled scream, his eyes wide in surprised anger. "Kagome!" Somehow his body always took over at times like this and without even thinking about it he found himself landing with a canine grace beside the well in modern Tokyo facing a group of young women who were looking at him with shock in their eyes.

His eyes roamed the group for mere seconds before coming to rest on Kagome, and sharp wooden stake held to her throat by a pale, leather clad gaijin. A growl echoed up from his chest at the site of the pointed wood against white skin and the same bubbling hatred that always appeared when Nathania was around suddenly grew teeth and started biting at his blood.

"Get away from her now."

**To Be Continued...**

**Notes from Hoowee:**  
_I'm trying to keep the continuity as close to the real thing as possible but I've just realised that going by the Inuyasha timeline, Miroku wouldn't know who Sesshoumaru was at this point. (ARG! I keep typing 'Sesshoumary' by accident.) What with all these people mentioning Fluffy's name wouldn't he want to know who it was? Oh well... just label it under 'big plot hole'. (Damn things keep popping up all over the place. Someone should really invent some sort of spray or paper or something to get rid of the sods.)  
And please note that where it says that Nathania killed Sesshoumaru it is always from her viewpoint, she actually does believe she killed him. (though we all know that would be impossible... I'd be staked by all the Fluffy lovers if I wrote that. Run-away, run-away!)_

**Quote:** There is a little bit of destiny in everyone, and a lot of free will - _This quote comes from a Legend of Zelda fic I stumbled across one day when I was surfing the net. It's written by a great author called _Jules_. It's called _'Into the Void'_ and I highly recommend it. You can find it at _ _Zelda: Grand Adventures_


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